


Objects in the Rearview

by Ultra



Category: Leverage
Genre: Break Up, Confusion, Developing Relationship, Drama, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Love, Romance, Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2014-03-20
Packaged: 2017-12-27 23:45:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 36,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU Mid-to-Late Season 4. Parker isn't sure what to think when she realises her heart just isn't in her relationship with Hardison. She turns to Eliot for advice, and that only seems to make things more complicated!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> After the serious AU and angsty tragedy of my last E/P fic, I think we all need something closer to canon and a little more fun, yes? Well, I sure do anyhow! lol This was originally going to be a one-shot, then I plotted it out to the end of Season 4 but didn’t have time to write it at the time. Now I do, so here goes. As always, reviews would be very much appreciated.

Eliot was rarely startled. If it ever happened, it tended to be Parker who managed to pull off such a feat, sometimes deliberately and sometimes not so much. The thief was about to prove her ability all over again today, Eliot realised, when he stepped out of the shower. He turned around just in time to see Parker come scurrying in through the door like a frightened mouse.

“Parker! What the hell are you doin’?” he growled crossly, checking the towel across his hips was securely fastened there.

“I need to talk to you,” she explained, re-locking the door and turning to put her back against it. “It’s been three days and I really need to talk to you,” she repeated desperately.

Eliot might’ve felt bad for her and asked what was wrong except he was much more focused on the fact he was all but naked and Parker just ambushed him. This was so far beyond normal and reasonable behaviour. It was also the very last time he decided to shower at the team apartment instead of going straight home!“What’s been three days?” he asked Parker out of curiousity that wouldn’t quit. “And you’ve seen me every day on this damn job!”“We needed to be alone!” she told him as if he were just that dumb. “We never are anymore.”“Why would we need to be?” Eliot wondered aloud, clearly frustrated as he flipped his wet hair off his face when it fell in his eyes. “And you picked the bathroom as a good spot for a conversation? I was in the shower, Parker!”

She looked across at him with eyes that switched from wide and innocent to admiring in a heartbeat. It actually seemed as if she genuinely hadn’t noticed he was barely dressed and dripping water all over the place until Eliot pointed it out to her. That was mildly insulting, he thought, but on the whole probably a good thing. A moment later Parker shook her head free of any unbidden dirty thoughts and answered his question.“You get mad when I show up at your place,” she said in all innocence apparently - Eliot couldn’t believe it.“I get mad because you break in!” he told her, waving his arms in some gesture of frustration, before realising at least one hand should probably stay near the towel, just in case.

“We’re getting off topic,” Parker waved her hands as if to clear the air of any other subjects. “This is more important. I need to know how to dump a person without making them cry.”

Eliot took a moment to guage her expression, which appeared to be perfectly serious. Even for Parker, this was a nutty question to be asking, and he told her just that a second later.“You’re crazy,” he said definitely, reaching for her arm so he could usher her out of the bathroom.

Parker easily evaded him and continued on.

“I’m serious, Eliot!” she told him, getting in his face. “I mean, you date a lot of women and then you break up with them. They never seem heartbroken. In fact, we see them months later and they’re smiling and pretty much wanting to have sex with you again!” she told him what he already knew and Eliot tried his best not to smirk since  now clearly wasn’t the time to be smug. “I need to know how that works.”

He met Parker’s eyes then, planning to say he was not having this conversation with her, especially not here and now in the bathroom. Unfortunately, in her gaze he saw pain and panic. Hell, he saw almost the exact same expression Hardison had been wearing three days ago when he was worried Parker might not want to be with him anymore. A knot tied itself up in Eliot’s stomach and he hated it.“Did something happen?” he asked the little blonde before him. “With Hardison?”“No. Well, yes,” Parker frowned some. “Not with Hardison but, near Hardison?” she tried to explain. “About him, I guess. I hate that this got so complicated!”

She turned away, practically pacing the tiny space between the two walls in front of Eliot. If a person could explode from frustration she probably would right now, and Eliot felt compelled to help her. Poor Parker, she did not get relationships or how to deal with people at all. She was better now than in the beginning, but still, this whole thing between her and Hardison was a minefield. Eliot didn’t want to be crossing it, but they were his friends, as close as family to him even. He couldn’t leave his bro hanging in the wind, and he certainly couldn’t stand here and watch Parker suffer, that would be as impossible as moving mountains or taking flight.

“Hey, slow down, breathe,” he encouraged her, catching her by the shoulders on her next pass and turning her towards him. “From the top, Parker. What is the real problem here?”Taking a deep breath, as instructed, Parker blew it out slowly and then explained herself from the beginning.

“That night we went out, me and Peggy, plus Sophie and Tara. Well, we met that guy, Mattingly, and he... I think he liked me,” she said with the strangest look on her face like she never thought it possible for a man to do that. “I mean, maybe he just liked that I was Parker and I have this thief reputation thing, I don’t know, but that’s not even the point,” she breathed deep again. “It was fun with him. It was fun pulling a con with a person that gets the things I get,” she admitted, looking up to meet Eliot’s eyes and soft smile.“Parker, there’s nothing wrong with that,” he promised her.“You don’t understand!” she shook her head in response, going so far as to pull out from his grip and move away as far as the confines of the small bathroom would let her. “It was fun like it is with you. He reminded me of you! I mean you’re tougher and hotter, probably even smarter, but he was like action guy, and I’m action girl, and Hardison... he wants to go see fighting robots, and take me to dinner, when I’d rather be stealing bags of cash and diffusing bombs,” she explained, waving her arms like some psychotic windmill. “What I’m saying is, we’re different. We’re too different, and Sophie says opposites attract but me and Hardison... we’re not opposite because we do have stuff in common, I just think maybe not enough.”

Eliot had no idea what he was supposed to say to all of that, not least because his mind was pretty much stuck on the part where Craig Mattingly had reminded Parker of him. She spoke so highly of him in her little crazy-ass rant, about how much she enjoyed pulling cons with him at her side. She didn’t miss Hardison on the job she and the girls fell into last week, she missed Eliot. That was wrong, obviously, but flattering at the same time. It was also not the point Parker needed him focused on right now, made clear by the way she looked at him then, hugging herself and looking terrified.

“I’m scared, Eliot,” she admitted, if he couldn’t already tell. “I’m scared that if I tell Hardison all this, he’ll be hurt, and I don’t want that.”Sitting down carefully on the edge of the tub, just because she had totally knocked the wind out of his sails with her confessions, Eliot was dumb-struck for a full minute. Working past the part where Parker just told him he was hot, smart, and the best partner in people-helping crime she could think of, he tried to concentrate on what she was actually asking for here. She needed advice and he was going to have to give it, though Eliot hadn’t anymore clue where to begin that she did really.

“Parker, there’s no easy way to break up with someone,” he told her with a shake of his head, “but if you’re not happy, sweetheart, then you just have to do it.”She sighed too heavily and came to sit down beside him, bumping his shoulder as she did so. Eliot checked the towel was still covering everything and leaned his elbows on his knees.

“Can’t you do it?” Parker asked in earnest. “Can’t you have one of your man-to-man talks and tell Hardison he doesn’t want to date me?”“No, Parker,” Eliot smirked at her gall, even though the situation was so serious. “I mean, yeah, I could, but I’m not going to. This is your relationship, darlin’. You started it and you have to finish it, I mean, you do if you want it to be over.”

This was bad and Eliot knew it. Hardison would be heart-broken if Parker ended things with him, but what he was telling her was true enough. Seemed to him it was breaking her heart to stay with the hacker, and that was no better. If she needed things to be done with the two of them, then it had to be. It was the only advice Eliot could give and that was that.

“I still want to be Hardison’s friend but... but when I’m on a job with some other guy, I shouldn’t be thinking how much fun it is compared to a date with him,” said Parker thoughtfully. “Pretty sure I shouldn’t be wishing you were there either,” she smiled at him then.

Eliot meant to look away but couldn’t quite do it.“You really wished I was there?” he asked, still a little bowled over and strangely flattered by her insistence that of all men, she would rather have had him at her side than any other, including her boyfriend.“Uh-huh,” she nodded, looking desolate about it somehow. “That’s wrong too, isn’t it?”“It’s not wrong, it’s just...” Eliot floundered for a proper answer and ultimately gave up as he pushed his unruly wet hair back one more time. “You just have to talk to Hardison.”“I know,” Parker agreed, “but what do I say?”

“The truth?” the hitter suggested, adjusting his towel as he stood up, suddenly all too aware of how close they’d been sitting and his own state of undress again. “That you like him but just not the way he likes you. That you’re sorry it can’t work out, and then there’s the killer line,” he smiled sadly, “that you still wanna be friends.”

Parker got to her feet too and looked between Eliot and the door.“And he’ll be okay with that?”“No, probably not,” he told her honestly as he always told her everything. “He loves you, Parker. It’s gonna hurt hearin’ you can’t feel the same way, but if it’s the truth then it’s gotta be said, for both your sakes.”

Parker nodded and scuffed her sneakers against the tile.“I know, you’re right. You’re always right,” she rolled her eyes as a burst of strangled laughter escaped her lips.“Maybe not always,” he replied too seriously, eyes on his own bare feet.

His gaze stayed off her even as Parker moved to leave, thanking him in a too quiet tone as she reached the door. Eliot had his back to the exit and was thinking about fixing his hair, getting dried off and dressed, when he realised Parker hadn’t quite left yet. In a flurry of limbs she came rushing back, suddenly in front of him again. Eliot didn’t get a chance to ask what she was doing when suddenly her lips were on his in a serious kiss. It was over as fast as it had begun, but the damage was already done. This was no peck on the cheek, no quick ‘thank you’ kiss, that was for damn sure.“For the record, when you’re not around, I always wish you were there,” said Parker fast, and then she was gone, literally running out of the room, the door slamming shut in her wake.Eliot turned a full circle in the now empty bathroom then shook his head. That woman was crazy and he hadn’t a clue what really just happened here. Still, he’d wonder on it for at least the rest of today if not longer, the hitter already knew that much. Somehow he just knew the fall-out from what might’ve been a simple conversation was going to be messy as all hell, and he wasn’t looking forward to it one little bit.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, you reader types really like this story already, huh? I so appreciate the kudos & feedback so thanks muchly! :)

Eliot was angry. That wasn’t really a new emotion for him, since anything and everything had the ability to make him mad at the drop of a hat. This was different, this was something he couldn’t explain to the majority of his team without making matters worse. The problem was Parker.

The thief had been a loose cannon from the very first job, but over the years Eliot had learnt to cope with her special brand of crazy. She went off on tangents, came out with the oddest non-sequitars, and didn’t understand things that every grown person ought to. At the same time, she could be a real sweetheart. She loved this team, even if she was a little sketchy on how best to show it sometimes and probably never would say the words any more than Eliot would himself. Parker was like no other woman he ever met, and she sure could wind him up faster than any other, that was for damn sure.

It was four days now since she came busting into the bathroom just when he climbed out of the shower. She wanted dating advice, or rather she wanted dumping advice. That wouldn’t have been so bad if she wasn’t dating Hardison right now.

Maybe dating was too strong a word. They’d gone out together, Eliot knew, but not in any real romantic way. It seemed to the hitter that they did the same kind of things alone together as they did with the team. He never really saw them be affectionate with each other like people in a relationship ought to be. No hand-holding, kissing, or specific looks. They high-fived and such after a job well done, just the same as always, just the same as Eliot and Hardison might. It was friendly, but that was all.

Watching them made him realise how vague their romance really was. There was no way in hell Eliot was going to ask what they did and did not do, because that was none of his business. It had been bad enough when Hardison tried to ask him what he needed to do better in his relationship with Parker. Of course, recalling that conversation made it even more clear to the hitter why this particular pairing was falling apart.

Hardison wanted Parker from the start, but now that he had her, he hadn’t clue how to handle a woman like that. Eliot knew he could do it himself, though just as soon as the thought passed through his head he dismissed it. It had been the same from the beginning, whenever an errant thought of Parker, or even Sophie, in any kind of sexual or romantic way entered his mind he threw it right out again. You didn’t get mixed up with chicks you worked with like that, no way. It made things too complicated, Nate and Sophie proved that, and now it seemed Parker and Hardison would act as example number two.

They’d taken a few days off, and today the team had reconvened to debrief from the previous job and look at possible new ones. Eliot had assumed there would be trouble given how Parker had planned to dump poor Hardison. He got a surprise when the hacker was grinning the moment he walked in the door. Eliot looked for evidence of anything being wrong and found none. In fact Hardison was acting just the same as ever towards Parker, and what was worse was she was letting him. Hardison didn’t even notice the little thief squirm or look guilty when he so much as touched her, or when he told her she looked nice today.

This was how Eliot came to be so angry. It just wasn’t right to leave a guy, or a girl for that matter, dangling on a string when you know you’re through with them. He had told Parker as much when she asked him. He told her that for both their sakes, for herself and for Hardison, she had to tell him the truth. Yeah, it was going to be nasty, Hardison would be upset, and the team would be in turmoil for a while, but the truth had to come out eventually. Quick and clean like ripping off a band aid, that was how it needed to be done. Instead Parker was letting this thing fester and drag on. It made him very mad.

Hardison deserved better. He was a good guy, annoying as hell sometimes, but a good person underneath it all. He loved Parker, or so he said. Eliot didn’t doubt it, but then there was a mutual kind of love amongst the whole team these days. They were family in some non-descript decidedly non-blood way, but they were. Hardison thought he was in love with Parker and Eliot never argued, even if he wasn’t so sure that love went both ways or was as strong as his bro thought. That was what Hardison was to Eliot, the annoying kid brother he never had. He didn’t want to see him hurt, and Parker dragging this out was only going to make the pain worse. Hardison would ask how long she knew things weren’t working, she’d tell her tale about the job with Mattingly, and he’d feel so stupid, so much more hurt than he needed to be.

Even so, Eliot was not going to meddle. He wasn’t going to tell Hardison what Parker had told him, no way. It wasn’t his place, and he wasn’t Sophie who would happily dole out dating advice and poke her nose into others business. Sure, she did it in an attempt to help, but that didn’t make it any better really. Eliot wasn’t that person before and he wasn’t about to start. However, he was going to have words with Parker if this went on too much longer.

Eliot was in the kitchen making lunch. He overheard Hardison as he came over to the table and sat down by Parker as she continued on sketching.

“So, I been thinkin’,” the hacker began. “Before we get too deep on another job, maybe we could use those passes I got for the exhibition at...”

“No, thanks,” said Parker abruptly before her so-called boyfriend even finished his sentence. “I mean, um, I’m busy... with stuff... and things,” she rambled, closing up her sketch book and bolting. “Sorry!” she called over her shoulder before slamming into the next room.

Eliot winced as the door banged shut, but more so he was feeling Hardison’s pain. The guy did not deserve this, no way, no how. He needed to talk with Parker and it needed to be now before things got even more out of hand. Checking on the food, Eliot knew he had a few more minutes before the chicken had to come out of the oven, so he could walk a way for a short while. He wiped his hands and then moved across the room, feigning left where the bathroom was but then changing direction at the last to follow Parker to the right.

She was sat by the window staring out when he stepped into the room, resisting the temptation to slam the door and startle her. It would only attract the attention of the others and she probably knew he was there already, she always did. She proved it when she spoke.

“I hate this!”

“Yeah? Well, you should,” Eliot replied without a shred of sympathy.

She turned wide eyes on him only to see him take his usual stance of angry expression and folded arms. Parker knew he wasn’t happy with her right now, but she couldn’t help that. She wasn’t happy either.

“Parker, you can’t treat people like that,” he said definitely, pointing back the way they had come. “Hardison doesn’t deserve this crap,”

“You don’t think I know that?” she yelled back, catching herself then as she realised she would be overheard and questions would doubtless be asked. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do, Eliot,” she said more reasonably. “I never had a boyfriend before, I never even really dated, like at all,” she explained, looking so sad, it was enough to calm his anger some.

Eliot wasn’t quite the monster his reputation made him seem. He cared for people, cared for this team more than was good for him most of the time. Parker was not treating Hardison right and he needed to tell her, yet she seemed to already know. She was hurting herself as much as the hacker. Eliot really didn’t have any good choices here, he realised, putting a hand to his head as if it was starting to ache.

“Parker, we talked about this,” he sighed, coming further into the room. “Yeah, it’s hard breaking up with a person, even when you’ve had practice, believe me,” he told her sagely. “But the fact is not telling him is worse. Hardison is acting like everything is fine and then you’re snapping his head off. That’s not fair.”

“I know,” she replied sadly, looking down at her own feet. “It’s just... I want everything to be how it was before, when we all got along, and nobody was dating anybody,” she sighed, blowing her bangs off her forehead a moment later and staring straight at Eliot. “It made things complicated.”

“Always does, sweetheart,” said Eliot with a shake of head, feeling more sorry for her than he meant to right now. “Dragging it out though? That makes it worse, and it makes you the kind of person... well, I thought you were better than that, Parker.”

Very few things made Parker cry her whole life. Hearing Eliot say those words, seeing him look at her like that then turn and walk away, it hurt like crazy. He was disappointed in her and Parker couldn’t stand that.

“Eliot!” she called behind him before he managed to open the door. “I’m sorry,” she said when he looked back at her.

“I’m not the one you owe an apology to, Parker,” he reminded her, and then he was gone.

* * *

Timing was important. Parker knew that better than anyone. Mistime a base-jump, a slide under a laser beam, a turn of the dial, and the job went south, everything was lost. She was pretty sure timing was equally important when it came to saying and doing certain things. For instance, you didn’t talk about happy things at funerals, or gross things when people were eating food. These things she had learnt, because the team taught her, especially Sophie and Eliot. They had their own ways of educating her. With Sophie it was with significant glances and quiet words. Eliot would scowl and snap that there was something wrong with her, but Parker didn’t mind either way. These people cared about her and they were just trying to help in their own very different ways. When Eliot told her she had to be honest with Hardison about their relationship, she knew he was right. He was always right about that kind of thing and she had meant to do as he said, it just turned out to be a lot harder than she thought.

The truth was, Parker cared for Hardison a lot. He was a good friend, and kissing him was okay, and yet being his girlfriend just wasn’t working out. When she wasn’t around, Hardison said he missed her, though she rarely had the same feeling about him. He wanted to take her places but never anywhere she was interested in going. The gifts he bought her were rarely anything she wanted and yet he seemed to have a list of reasons why she should love them. It just didn’t work. Telling him that was a whole other ballgame.

When people got bad news, they cried. Parker didn’t want to make Hardison cry, not ever. She never wanted him to go away, and she wanted him to care about her always. If she told him she couldn’t be his girlfriend anymore, she wasn’t so sure he’d just want to be regular friends after everything. That was what scared her. Archie said she went out and built her own family to fit around her. He was right, but then Parker had allowed herself to get swept up in the excitement of an experience she never had before, her very own relationship and a boyfriend. Getting out of these things without causing damage was so much harder than the getting in had been. So much for always having an exit strategy. This time she failed miserably.

There was a plan in her mind. Parker had thought she could get some alone time with Hardison, tell him it was over, and fix things in the two or three days that followed before a new job began. Surely it couldn’t take longer than that for everything to be okay. Unfortunately, the two or three days she thought she would have (which would have been the most ridiculously short post-break-up time to anyone else anyway) was suddenly cut short to all of a few hours.

After her talk with Eliot she returned to the living room just as the hitter was serving lunch. Just as soon as they were all done eating, Nate went down to the bar for a drink and Eliot went to keep him company, book in hand. Sophie went for a soak in the tub, leaving Parker and Hardison alone. This was her opportunity, as if it had all been planned out for her, but no sooner had she manage to apologise for the way she ran off before and open her mouth again to explain more, there was a commotion downstairs. Crashing in the bar was swiftly followed by Eliot rushing up the stairs in search of Sophie because some guy was crying in the bar. Suddenly, they had a new job, right here and right now.

“You okay, Parker?” asked Hardison as she stood staring dumbly at the wall a moment.

“What? Me? Yeah, fine,” she waved away his concern.

Now was not a good time for this conversation she’d been planning. It would have to wait until after this job was done. Even Eliot would see her point on that one.

Seemed Parker was still dating Hardison for the time being, whether she liked it or not.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't we just feel sorry for everybody right now? It'll get better soon... kinda, maybe... On to The Lonely Hearts Job!! lol

Parker was getting annoyed with Hardison. She didn’t want to, because honestly none of this was his fault. Actually, that wasn’t quite true, because a little bit of it was definitely his fault. He made her think that being in a relationship with him was a good idea, being a girlfriend and everything. Now Parker realised he had been wrong. They’d both been very wrong in thinking this could work out at all. It wasn’t working and she wanted out, but now they were back in the middle of a job and it would be very bad timing for a break up. She had to wait until they were done, until they caught the spider woman at this stupid bachelor auction and made the rich man client go away happy.

The little thief squirmed in her pink dress. She was uncomfortable being so out in the open and wearing such a colour, it just wasn’t her. Hardison said she looked gorgeous and that only made it worse. Eliot wouldn’t even look at her. If Parker was annoyed with this situation then her hitter friend was all but hopping mad. In turn, that made Parker even more frustated. It was a vicious circle of anger that wasn’t doing anyone any good. It would be a really good thing when this job was over, that was for sure.

“Parker, concentrate,” said Sophie through her earbud then. “The auction is starting.”

“Right, auction,” she muttered, stopping in her attempts to manoeuvre her clothing - she hated these strapless bra things.

The men on stage were now being auctioned to the highest bidder. Actually it was just a date with each man, but Parker couldn’t help but think it was a little too much like a cattle market. All she had to do was wait until the end when Hardison and Eliot came up for auction, and then wave her hand a lot to bid up the price. Sophie would do the same, and their guys were guaranteed to go to the richest and/or most desperate women present. It made sense and should help them track down their client’s black widow of a wife. Of course, there was a side bet going on, which Parker, Sophie, and Nate all heard through their earbuds. A steak dinner was riding on this, that’s what Hardison suggested, and Eliot had easily agreed.

Parker narrowed her eyes. If Hardison was so dedicated to her, why would he want to make these rich skanky women bid so high on him? Sometimes his head got too big and that made her mad too. Maybe she was just trying to find fault to give herself more excuses about dumping him, but that thought didn’t stick in her head very much. She was determined to be mad at him right now, and so when Hardison was presented to the crowd, Parker pretended not to notice.

Sophie and Nate were yelling crossly at her, albeit in whispers. It certainly all sounded very angry in her earbud, but Parker was not going to give in. Hardison was playing up to the crowd, not just the one girl bidding most, but all of the women. She knew he was doing it for the con, but that didn’t mean she was going to stand for such crap. She looked everywhere but at her boyfriend and refused to bid. It didn’t matter, with Sophie’s help the amount bid climbed quickly and then she let him go to an Asian girl close to the stage. Next came Eliot’s turn.

“What was that all about?” Hardison whispered when his date wasn’t paying attention.

“What?” Parker replied easily. “Sophie bid you up, and I’m gonna take Eliot. It’d look weird if we both went crazy for both of you.”

They took her reasoning and agreed to it, even if Eliot was looking sceptical when she glanced his way. He knew what was up, and she knew that he did. Parker never did wonder why he was the one person she didn’t mind talking to about things. She did share with Sophie, especially when she needed advice in the beginning. These days the grifter hadn’t been as approachable to Parker. She was always so busy with Nate, and her own problems with him seemed to leak out into conversation whenever Parker asked for advice. That just made the thief uncomfortable. Kind of felt like your parents talking about their love life - too weird! So she turned to Eliot, and though he was brutally honest sometimes, he could also be really sweet. It didn’t hurt that he was hot as hell, and knew how to cook and bake all her favourite things. Yeah, she liked Eliot a lot, she trusted him like she trusted no-one else, and when he smiled like he was right now she totally understood why every woman he met practically fell at his feet.

Parker hadn’t really noticed her hand was in the air at first. The frantic whispering in her ear dragged her from her thoughts and suddenly the auctioneer’s voice seemed to appear out of nowhere. She just bid ten thousand dollars on Eliot and the other girl that wanted him was looking really pissed. They couldn’t afford to have a potential mark jeopardised and Nate was telling her in no uncertain terms to keep her hand down now!

She obeyed, looked towards the auctioneer and forced a smile as she shook her head no. Parker wasn’t going to bid anymore, not even when Eliot’s eyes landed on her in that intense way, sending a shudder through her body that she didn’t understand but kind of liked anyway. They were in the middle of a con and she couldn’t afford for her mind to wander. She still blamed Hardison for that. If she hadn’t agreed to be his girlfriend things never would’ve gotten out of hand like this.

Parker turned away, concentrated on the job at hand. Sophie was already noticing strange things happening and reporting them directly into everyone’s ear. The girls were klutzes, tripping on thin air so that the guys would catch them. They stared into their eyes, ‘soul-gazing’ as Sophie called it. There wasn’t just one mark, there were a whole room full, and Parker was not happy to hear it. Not only did that make a job she wanted over quickly like ten times more complex, it also meant two of these hoes were playing the guys, her guys. She was not happy about any of this.

It was a nice surprise when within ten minutes, Nate was giving her an excuse to let out some of her frustration.

“Pick a fight with the girl over your man, Parker,” he said in her ear.

The grin on the thief’s face was manic at best, and Sophie noticed too late. What would surprise everyone was how instead of walking right on up to Hardison’s girl and yelling abuse, she stalked across the room to take down Eliot’s date - literally. Sophie winced when Parker’s fist impacted with the other blonde’s face, knocking her almost completely off her high heels.

Nate had said ‘pick a fight’, completely the wrong words to use regardless of which mark Parker chose to go after. He had meant argument, verbal and non-arrestable, not an actual punch-up, but it was too late. Eliot might actually have been proud of the way Parker handled herself if he wasn’t so confused and angry at her right now. She had good form because he had taught her well, and of all things, Parker was a good student - she listened and she did as she was told, eventually. Now she was not doing as he was asking or telling her, and it left him with no choice but to physically lift her off the other chick, scolding her as he did so.

“Enough, Parker! That is for defence, not attack,” he told her, a harsh whisper in her ear.

Parker didn’t care. The shock on the other girl’s face was so funny, and the bruise she was going to get was funnier still. Of course, now that the adrenaline slowed to a dull roar, Parker could feel her own pain. Damn it, there was a good chance that bitch had knocked her tooth out or something - it really hurt!

* * *

Eliot didn’t want to care that Parker was hurt. She deserved a little hurt right now for what she was putting Hardison through, and yet he didn’t quite have it in him to be so cruel. All those people that knew Eliot Spencer’s reputation as such a tough guy, they had no idea how much his heart melted sometimes, like right now looking at Parker sitting alone on the balcony.

She was like a lost little girl in this moment, except for the icepack held to her jaw that proved she could hold her own in a fight. The other woman got in one lucky punch was all. Parker had been doing pretty well other than that, almost too well, but then she did have a great self-defence teacher. She ought to have stuck to using those moves to defend herself too, but when Nate said ‘pick a fight’ she took him too literally. He expected a verbal argument and got a brawl. Served the guy right for not beings specific with the most literal member of their crew.

Nate and Sophie had since gone out, and Hardison was stuck to his computer like glue. He said he was running checks and keeping an eye on things. Eliot was pretty sure he was just avoiding Parker after her behaviour at the auction. If she fought with anyone it ought to be the woman that bid on her boyfriend, not on Eliot. The hacker didn’t understand and when he asked Parker to explain, she just clammed up and ran. Those two were going to become a problem before long, and it wasn’t really one Eliot could help them solve. Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try with the one half of the couple he could have an honest conversation with right now.

“You okay?” he asked Parker as he ventured outside and sat down beside her.

“Uh-huh,” she nodded carefully, ice still held to her lip.

It was sweet of him to care. She knew how mad he was at her for messing Hardison around and yet just as soon as they’d got back to the hotel he took a look at her lip and chin, fetched her an ice pack and told her to keep it on there for as long as the ice lasted. Now he was even checking up on her to see how she was doing. She probably didn’t deserve it, but she appreciated it anyway. Eliot was always nice to her when she got hurt or upset. Parker wasn’t sure if he was like that with every member of the team and she just hadn’t noticed, or if their relationship was actually different. It made her think of that one time inside a mountain a few months back and she frowned.

“You sure you’re okay?” he checked when he noticed her expression, head tilted to one side as he observed her.

“Um, yeah,” Parker shook of her thoughts and forced a smile. “I mean, my lip is okay, more or less,” she confirmed. “I’ll just be glad when this job is over.”

Eliot nodded his agreement to that one. It wasn’t the job that was really the problem but what it represented. It was a road-block to Parker telling Hardison the truth and figuring out how they all moved forward. Secrets and lies were no good amongst friends and family, such as the team were. It got messy and dangerous, as already demonstrated, and good people got hurt way more than they needed to.

“Y’know, just as soon as we get back to Boston...”

“I know,” she interrupted crossly, though none of this was Eliot’s fault. “I know I have to tell Hardison the truth, and I want to... but at the same time, I don’t. It’s too confusing,” she admitted, tossing her ice pack aside and briefly putting her face in her hands.

Eliot half-considered putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, but changed his mind at the last second and pushed his own hair back off his face.

“I’m not gonna ask why you slugged my date and not Hardison’s at the auction,” he said, looking out at the view rather than at her.

“She was more annoying,” Parker shrugged, even though the question had not even been posed. “Hardison was more annoying too. He got all fat-headed, making that bet with you about who would get more bids,” she grumbled and then smiled out of nowhere as she looked sideways at Eliot. “I’m glad I fixed it so he owes you the steak dinner,” she grinned wickedly.

Eliot tried not smile but failed miserably. That had been a pretty sweet moment.

“Thank you for that,” he told her begrudgingly. “Not sure it was the right thing to do though. Hardison’s a good guy.”

“I know that,” she sighed once again.

Parker was slumped forward, arms hugging her knees and chin not quite resting on top since it hurt still. She looked as if the weight of the world rested on her shoulders. Beside her, Eliot was sat in a similar position, wishing he could just make this easier on everybody and knowing he couldn’t. If it had been him and Parker that got together instead of Hardison and Parker, maybe it would’ve been easier. If nothing else, they had learnt to communicate in their own way over the years. Parker didn’t seem to fear telling Eliot anything, and his feelings weren’t half so easy to hurt as Hardison’s own. Of course, thinking about himself with his buddy’s woman made Eliot feel increasingly guilty and so he shook the thoughts from his mind fast.

“Hardison would be so much easier to dump if he was a bad guy,” Parker considered.

“One bad guy per team is enough,” answered Eliot like a reflex, especially given where his mind had just been wandering to.

Parker’s laughter at that was a little too surprising. The way she stopped sharply when she realised Eliot wasn’t joking came as a similar shock.

“You still believe that?” she checked, apparently incredulous at the very idea. “That’s crazy! Like, crazier than me!” she insisted when Eliot turned his face away. “Eliot, you’re not a bad guy. If you were, you wouldn’t be sitting here now with me, making sure I’m okay, even though I know I’m screwing everything up. We all did bad things before, and even now,” she reminded him, trying to get his attention but he wouldn’t look at her yet. “And I know my bad things and your bad things are different,” she continued, wincing herself especially when she saw him do the same. “That doesn’t matter to people like us, because... we’re us,” she badly paraphrased what he once told her inside the mountain that had come to mind a few moments before. “I couldn’t ever hate you, Eliot. I don’t think it’s actually possible, so... so please don’t plan on leaving or anything, okay? Because I can’t handle that right now.”

Eliot was surprised by her words, and doubly shocked when he looked back at her then and saw how close she was to tears. Parker didn’t get emotional much, not unless it really mattered. It never really occurred to him that he mattered to her, not this much.

“I’m not goin’ anywhere, sweetheart,” he promised her then with a sad sort of a half-smile. “Honestly? I thought about it. After San Lorenzo, I really did, but... well, you’d only go out and get yourself killed if I wasn’t here to watch your back, right?” he smirked then.

A burst of laughter escaped Parker’s lips at the same time one lone tear streaked down her cheek. She wiped said tear away fast and sniffed a little. As long as Eliot was around, she could deal with almost anything, even dumping Hardison and maybe ruining things with the rest of the team. With one last sigh that wasn’t nearly so sad as those that came before, Parker leant her head against Eliot’s shoulder, and just enjoyed the view a little while longer. It was all going to be okay.


	4. Chapter 4

Eliot wanted to blame concussion for his stupid decision. Unfortunately, he knew best of anyone that he had come out of his latest fight completely free of a head injury. There was no excuse for not thinking through what he had done here, except he was just being very dumb today.

It had seemed like a nice idea. After a job that was entirely based around love, dating, seduction, it really ought to occur to Hardison and even more so Nate to do something sweet and romantic for their girlfriends. Clearly it had not, and Eliot had decided to step in at the last. He ordered roses for Sophie, the traditional gift of love, and yet knew such a thing would never impress Parker. She never did see the point of flowers or plants and so Eliot went out of his way to select something she would appreciate, a plant with a purpose. The Venus Fly Trap was perfect, since it would eat any bothersome bugs. Parker would love it, he knew that, long before she opened the box and smiled a wide and giddy smile.

The two women on his team were thrilled. Sophie turned to Nate and gave him a long kiss, thanking him profusely for being so sweet. Parker’s smile wavered when Hardison told her she was welcome for her gift before she ever got as far as thanking him. That was the moment Eliot got up and decided walking away was a good plan. Parker was way too smart for her own good, somehow she knew. She figured out that Hardison didn’t know her well enough, would never have been thoughtful enough for such a gift. She knew that much already and it was only a few moments more before...

“Eliot!” she called his name and the hitter winced as he stopped walking all of two steps from his bar stool.

“What?” he asked, trying to keep expression neutral as he turned to look back at her.

There was a smile on her lips as she hopped down from her own seat and came hurrying around the bar towards him.

“Thank you,” she said, all sweetness and light as she leaned in fast as anything, planting the briefest peck on his cheek. “I love it,” she said of the plant she still had grasped by the pot in both hands.

Eliot tried not to look at the others and it honestly didn’t come that hard. The genuine smile on Parker’s lips was hypnotic and he was glad to have pleased her. It would’ve helped if he hadn’t just made things ten times worse for Hardison by comparison. The hacker’s eyes were on him, Eliot knew, and the expression he wore wasn’t happy either. Not that there was much he could do about that right now.

“You’re welcome,” he forced out, before turning and striding away.

Eliot vaguely heard Sophie asking Nate if he really did buy her roses after all. That was not going to end well either, but Sophie and Nate were at least grown ups, even if they didn’t always behave that way. His letting her believe he was the gift-giver wouldn’t be that big a deal, he’d talk his way out of it, no problem. The real issue was Parker and Hardison, and Eliot didn’t want to be there when the explosion that had been impending for the past few days finally happened.

“Okay, so I didn’t actually buy the plant,” said Hardison as Parker returned to her seat beside him, trying to ignore the bickering that had started up between the mastermind and grifter two seats over. “But, y’know, I would’ve. I wanna make you happy, mama, you know that, I just...”

“Well, you don’t!” she yelled at him suddenly, wishing the words unsaid a second later.

Parker kept her eyes on her plant and clamped one hand right over her mouth for fear of a further unplanned outburst. She wasn’t doing this right, she wasn’t handling it well at all.

Eliot had walked away and Nate had chased Sophie out of the front door, so she and Hardison were alone, more or less. There were other people in the bar but that couldn’t really be helped. The job was over now and Parker knew she had to do this, she had to tell Hardison the truth. She needed tact and kindness but such things were not natural traits for her. She didn’t know how to handle a break up any more than she could handle the relationship itself. At least this part was supposed to be short. She remembered what Eliot said about ripping off the band aid and getting it over with, about being honest. Still, she doubted he meant for her to be cruel, not to Hardison.

“I... I don’t make you happy?” the hacker asked carefully, so much sadness in his tone, Parker could hardly bear to look at him and see that emotion in his expression too.

“It’s not your fault,” she swallowed hard. “Maybe it’s my fault, or it could be that it’s nobodies fault exactly,” she frowned, finding that even after so many days of deep thought she still couldn’t verbalise this very well.

“No. No, it probably is my fault,” said Hardison, reaching to pick up her hand in his own. “Parker, I’m sorry. I probably haven’t handled things so well, I...”

“No,” she pulled her hand free and folded her arms so he couldn’t do that again. “I can’t... I can’t be this girlfriend that you want me to be.”

“Parker, you’re already everything I want you to be,” he tried to tell her but she shook her head because she couldn’t agree, she couldn’t believe that.

“I’m not, Hardison, and I don’t want to be,” she admitted, feeling stupidly emotional and hating every second of it. “I’m not meant to be your girlfriend, I’m just... I’m meant to be Parker,” she tried her best to explain. “That’s not your fault, but trying to make us work when we don’t, that’s both our faults.”

Hardison didn’t understand, she was sure he couldn’t, because Parker wasn’t even sure she understood herself anymore. It was so hard to put into words all that she was feeling. She managed to get the point across when she told Eliot, but that was different. She didn’t have to fear what his reaction would be or be concerned that he wouldn’t understand her. Eliot never misunderstood. Sometimes he thought she was crazy to the point of unhinged, but he always understood. Hardison struggled and that was the point. He couldn’t wrap his head around all of her quirks and Parker refused to let herself be changed, however good his intentions might be in altering her crazy ways.

“Okay,” he said slowly then, eyes closed and hand to his head moment like this whole thing was giving him a headache. “So, er... this is all ‘cause I didn’t buy you a plant?”

“No!” Parker reacted loudly and with frustration, the surprise of which almost knocked Hardison clean off his stool. “This is something that I’ve known for days now, but I didn’t know how to tell you,” she told him honestly. “I like you, Hardison, a lot, and I love that we’re friends and that you care about me, but I didn’t wish for you.”

“You didn’t... wish?” he tried his very hardest to make sense of what she was telling him but it just wasn’t coming. “Like, I’m not Prince Charming enough for you?”

“You’re not what I wish for when you’re not there,” she tried again. “Like, with Mattingley? It was so much fun, and it shouldn’t’ve been, because I should’ve wished you were there, but I didn’t,” she confessed.

Starting from the beginning seemed like a good plan right now. Honestly, this wasn’t the absolute start of when she began having doubts about her relationship with Hardison but it was the tipping point, the straw that broke the camel’s back perhaps. She left out the part where she had wished for Eliot instead of her so-called boyfriend. Somehow even Parker knew that would just make everything worse.

“Okay,” said Hardison eventually. “But y’know, girl, we don’t have to want to spend every minute together. I’ll be honest, I wanna spend a lot o’ time with you, but sometimes, I like to kick back alone, or with my buddies in my World of Warcraft...”

“You’re not getting it!” she said with frustration, slamming her hands down hard on the bar top.

Parker wanted to scream, right at the top of her lungs. She just couldn’t handle this. She wanted to end this relationship and she wanted Hardison to understand her reasons but he just wasn’t getting it. Eliot’s words played over and over in her head - be honest, rip off the band aid. She was up on her feet in a second, closing her eyes and just letting it all spill out of her in one go, whether Hardison liked it or not.

“I don’t want to be your girlfriend anymore. I don’t want your gifts or to take trips with you. I’m tired of pretzels, and I need to not be with you anymore!”

Hardison could hardly take in the words and certainly hadn’t been given time to digest them before Parker grabbed up her plant and ran. He was grateful for the fact she went for the back of the bar and the stairs, rather than the front door. It meant he could gather his thoughts and go after her at least. That was when he’d had a moment to think, to swallow down the lump in his throat and the pain in his heart.

Parker wasn’t thinking at all, just running. She was up the stairs to the apartment in a flash, almost knocking Eliot over as she cleared the door. He was clearly on his way out, trying to escape another awkward situation. Nate and Sophie must’ve circled around and back inside to the apartment, still bickering over his so-called betrayal. Parker didn’t hear a word. She couldn’t even meet Eliot’s eyes and he knew she had done what she had to with Hardison. If the tears welling in her eyes were anything to go by, it had been exactly the train-wreck he was expecting.

“You okay, Parker?” he asked, getting in her way when she tried to rush past him, still carrying the plant he had bought for her.

“No,” she admitted immediately. “Really not okay. You were right, the truth does hurt, and not just the person you’re telling it to,” she sighed, desperate not to let her emotions get the better of her.

Eliot didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t as if words were exactly his strong point at any time, but a relationship councillor he definitely was not. Parker and Hardison were both his friends, his family even. Getting in the middle of their relationship was a bad plan, but to leave them to their pain without at least trying to assist seemed worse somehow. He winced as a door slammed and then opened again. Sophie rushed through and up the spiral staircase with Nate on her heels. Their fight was still ongoing and not conducive to what Parker and Hardison were going through. Eliot took the little thief gently by the arm and pulled her out into the hallway, closing the apartment door behind them both.

“He didn’t take it well, huh?” he asked pointlessly.

Parker snorted incredulously at his understatement, wiped away a tear before it really had a chance to fall.

“He wouldn’t listen. It’s like he didn’t want to understand,” she huffed, sitting down with her back against the wall and her plant propped between her legs.

“Maybe that’s exactly what his problem is,” Eliot considered, sliding down the wall to join her. “He probably doesn’t wanna understand, because that would mean it’s all over.”

“But it’s still over, even if he doesn’t want it to be. It just is,” she declared firmly, fingers running over the leaves of her fly trap, eyes focused solely on the plant and nothing else. “I just wish we were still like we used to be, just friends and not complicated,” she sighed heavily.

Eliot watched her playing with the plant, risking her pointer finger in the ‘mouth’ of it. That was Parker, the risk taker. His brain automatically added ‘heart breaker’ as the phrase went, and it certainly applied right now. Hardison was most definitely going to be heart broken since Parker told him it was over. Despite it being what she wanted, Eliot was pretty sure she wasn’t feeling any much better herself.

“Sweetheart’,” he sighed, putting an arm around her shoulders. “It’s always complicated,” he sympathised, as her head dropped onto his shoulder.

There was no right thing to say or good choice to make here. Eliot knew from the second Parker told him she had to break up with Hardison that this team was going to fall into some unholy mess. Maybe he wasn’t helping by comforting Parker like this. After all, it wasn’t so many days ago she bust in on him in the bathroom when he was barely out of the shower and declared she had wished he was there on her adventure with Mattingley. She admitted to wishing he was around whenever he was absent, but never really missing Hardison. Sure, she made it clear that she had no real desire to be anybody’s girlfriend after all, but Eliot realised too late that maybe he should be wary. The elevator doors slid open with a ping, and suddenly there was Hardison, looking right at his girlfriend sat on the floor with another guy’s arm around her. Eliot knew that looked bad, even if there was usually a lot of trust between team-mates. Things were never as clear or straight-forward when emotions were boiling over. Hardison was unl ikely to see this act of simple comfort as anything like innocent.

“Hey, man,” said Eliot as he pulled his arm away from Parker and shifted as if to stand.

“So this is how it is, huh?” the hacker said crossly. “She dump me and runs straight into your muscular arms? That how it works, Eliot?”

“You’re delusional,” the hitter told him, determined to remember that his friend was only lashing out because he was hurting right now. “Man, I know this is a rough time for you, you’re not thinkin’ about what you’re sayin’, so I’m not gonna react to that...”

“Oh, you not gonna react?” Hardison interrupted, folding his arms across his chest to match Eliot’s own stance.

“Guys, please. Don’t fight,” said Parker, scrambling to her feet and trying to intervene.

Hardison’s eyes didn’t leave Eliot’s own. Gazes locked and postures definitely on the wrong side of the ‘let’s hit each other’ line, Parker did not like this at all, especially since she knew it was only occurring because of her.

“Walk away, Hardison,” said Eliot in a low voice. “Walk away and go calm down, because believe me, brother, you do not wanna take this out on me.”

“Is that right?” asked his friend with a look.

The next second Hardison’s arm moved back, his fist flying suddenly forward. Eliot saw it coming, catching said fist in his hand and twisting Hardison around. The hacker’s arm was up his back before he had a chance to think, and Parker’s shouts of panic brought Nate and Sophie running. They found Hardison pinned to the wall by Eliot, struggling to get free, and yelling abuse. Immediately, the mastermind tried to break it up and find out what the hell was happening. Sophie’s eyes went to Parker, catching sight of tears on her cheeks before she bolted from the scene.

“Oh, this is not good!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for Mom & Dad to try and fix the rift between the kids. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin...

There was no way Nate was ever going to be strong enough to actually remove Eliot from Hardison when he had the hacker pinned against the wall. Thankfully he did know the right words to say to calm the situation. He spoke of how they were being ridiculous, and that they were only going to end up making matters worse, especially for Parker. That seemed to bring them both out of their red haze of anger. If there was one thing Hardison and Eliot would always agree on, it was looking out for their girl.

Sophie had very quickly assessed the situation the moment she and Nate came across it. Parker practically crying, Eliot hurting Hardison. There were only two explanations and one was so much more likely than the other. Hitter and hacker did not turn on each other this badly, they just never did. The fight had to be over Parker, and Sophie was not willing to believe Hardison had done anything to actually hurt her. Eliot had bought Parker the plant, same as he had bought her roses, only Nate wasn’t naive enough to think the hitter was after Sophie. He was just trying to do a nice thing, maybe even patch up the relationships between his friends. It hadn’t worked. Parker knew Eliot too well, and it seemed she was no longer willing to play pretend with Hardison.

It was all make believe, and as time wore on it had become more and more obvious to Sophie. Hardions’s love was real enough, his heart was true, but he and Parker just couldn’t ever work out in the long run. They were too different and whilst opposites attracted, keeping them together was that much more difficult. It wasn’t really Hardion’s fault any more than it was Parker’s own. He wanted to be with his crazy little thief but his plans were to rehabilitate her, to normalise her perhaps. There were merits to helping Parker become somewhat more socially aware and acceptable in company, Sophie helped with that herself, but there was such a thing as too much of a good thing. She suspected that was what was starting to happen.

“Hardison, come on,” she urged him, grabbing at his arm.

His eyes were fixed on Eliot who was being encouraged into the elevator by Nate. Angry gazes on both the guys, they wouldn’t back down until the doors of the elevator closed between them. Sophie gave Hardison’s arm another tug.

“Come inside, come and talk to me,” she said a little more forcefully.

This needed dealing with and there was no way in hell the three youngest in their team would manage it alone. Sophie wasn’t sure how much she and Nate were going to be able to assist yet, but she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to try her hardest. She came back to this team because it was her family, the place she truly belonged. Sophie was not prepared to let the whole thing fall apart now.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine how Hardison was feeling. Dumped and betrayed, that was pretty basic and normal. Parker would be feeling bad for upsetting the balance, she supposed, and Eliot was just mad that he couldn’t keep everyone safe and happy in this, as was his job, his reason for being here. The unknown quantity was what, if anything, was happening with Eliot and Parker.

Sophie knew there was a bond there, something special too. She would think they were more like brother and sister than anything, but that just wasn’t accurate. There was a different kind of interest in Eliot’s eyes sometimes, and Parker would say things, her strange off the cuff remarks and non-sequitars. Some of them were starting to sound more and more significant, especially when Sophie put them in the context of today’s events.

“I can’t believe she would do this!” said Hardison loudly, slamming his hand on the counter top as he stormed through the apartment. “She wouldn’t do this! Parker... she ain’t that girl. This is all him, all of it!”

Sophie watched from over by the now closed door, waiting for him to stop for breath.

“I understand you’re upset, Hardison,” she said kindly. “But honestly, you can’t believe these things you’re saying. Parker has her own mind, and in any case Eliot would never...”

“Ha!” he interrupted her with  scoff of laughter. “Yeah, you’d like to think so. Y’know I call him bro, I thought he knew how much I meant that, but no. No, not Eliot Spencer. Like he don’t have enough chicks in his life already!”

Sophie resisted the eye roll that wanted to take over her face. It wasn’t fair, even if Hardison was being overly dramatic. She didn’t believe for a moment that Eliot or Parker would cheat on Hardison with each other. That was not the nature of the relationship within their team. They all loved each other, whether they spoke of it or not. Eliot and Hardison were as much brothers as any two men Sophie ever knew, and Parker meant the world to the both of them. This whole ridiculous situation needed bringing back to reality and sorting out like adults.

“Okay, first of all,” she said firmly as she walked across the space between them. “We are women, not chicks or babes or any other quaint American slang term for females,” she said, not quite angry but a little put out certainly. “Secondly, I refuse to believe that Eliot would make any kind of move on Parker when he knows the two of you are together,” she said firmly, coming to stand by the teams workstation.

Hardison was sat on the stool, hunched over, idly spinning pictures around on the screen embedded in the table top.

“Yeah, well,” he grumbled. “We ain’t together no more since she dumped my ass!” he said crossly, harshly.

Anger to cover pain, it was a normal base reaction for both sexes in such a situation. Sophie couldn’t blame him. Being dumped like that hurt his pride. As awful as it sounded, even in Sophie’s own head, it probably hurt him more to be dumped by Parker than anyone. She was the novice at dating, and therefore should be that much more easily kept in the girlfriend role. Hardison couldn’t even keep her happy. He felt like a failure in so many ways and that was not something the genius hacker was used to.

“You think you’re the first person to get dumped,” she smiled kindly, her hand at his shoulder. “Hardison, it happens, and sometimes later people reconsider and get back together, and sometimes they don’t, but it’s really not fair to take it out on anyone else.”

“That’d be true if it weren’t nobody else’s fault,” he agreed, eyes flashing angrily. “Soph, she dumped me, I followed her up here, and she was sittin’ there all cosy with Eliot...”

“Because he was probably being a friend, a brother even, but he was not making a move on Parker!” she said definitely. “I know Eliot’s reputation with the ladies, of course I do, we all do, but he would not do that. Not to you, you know he bloody wouldn’t!”

It was making her angry when she didn’t mean to be. Sophie could cover all kinds of emotions when she was grifting, but with these people, when things were so real and raw, she had to be herself and let out what she was really feeling. They deserved nothing less than the whole truth from her.

“I know,” Hardison nodded then, rubbing a hand over his face, before turning wide tear-filled eyes to Sophie. “I know that, but if I don’t blame Eliot then I gotta blame Parker. I gotta accept that she dumped me ‘cause... ‘cause she just don’t love me,”

“Oh, sweetie,” Sophie sighed as she moved to hug him.

Hardison grabbed onto her like a little boy crying to his mother. It hurt, it really did, to know that he wasn’t what Parker wanted and all attempts to make her happy had failed. He cried because he knew she was right, that they weren’t right together, he just hadn’t wanted to accept it until she made him. Hardison knew he was going to love that girl forever, and yet he didn’t really deserve her and couldn’t be what she wanted or needed. That was hurt most of all, and it really was nobody’s fault.

* * *

“Here,” said Nate as he returned to the back room of the bar and handed Eliot a bottle of beer.

“Thanks,” he grunted in reply, though he didn’t drink, just held the bottle on the table, turning it around and around between his hands.

Nate wasn’t really sure what he was going to say next. He hadn’t got this far with his son, to the point of girls and relationships, and he’d never had a younger brother or anything. His own father didn’t exactly impart much wisdom about women, and Nate’s own track record was bumpy at best - one ex-wife, and one Sophie Devereaux. In point of fact, the man with all the knowledge of women was Eliot himself, and yet he seemed to have gotten himself into a real mess, right smack dab in the middle of another guys relationship, with a woman they all loved in their own ways. Knowing where to start did not come easy, even for a mastermind.

“So, you wanna tell me what happened up there?” he asked, sipping on his scotch.

Eliot rolled his eyes and shifted to lean back in his chair, like a stroppy teen.

“No, Dad, I really don’t,” he said sarcastically, folding his arms across his chest.

“Well, I may not be quite old enough to be your father, Eliot, and most of the time I have no reason to try and act that way, but right now you three are messing with the dynamic of this team,” said Nate, leaning across the table towards him, full force fatherly tone in play. “For as long as you and Hardison and Parker choose to behave like children, then yeah, me and Sophie are going to treat you like children,” he said firmly. “Now, do you wanna tell me what happened up there?”

Eliot let out a low growl and nothing else. He knew this was going to happen. He was only trying to help out with Parker and Hardison, something he had vowed from the beginning not to do. Now he had and everything was getting blown to hell, to the point where he was being talked down to by a man that couldn’t hold his liquor a not small part of the time and certainly hadn’t got even a fraction of the experience with women that Eliot himself had. Still, if there was a way to fix all this, Nate probably had it.

“It was a few days ago,” he sighed, looking everywhere but at the mastermind across the table. “Parker got all freaked after that job she pulled with Mattingley. She decided that her and Hardison weren’t working out. She came and asked me how a person dumped another person with the least amount of fall out,” he admitted, grabbing for his beer then and taking a long swig.

“Okay,” Nate nodded as he considered what he’d been told so far. “This was before the job we just pulled?”

“Yeah,” Eliot agreed with a solemn nod. “Believe it or not, Parker was thoughtful enough not to dump the guy in the middle of a con and ruin one of your fantastic plans,” he said, with an edge of sarcasm to his words. “Apparently she couldn’t wait too much longer than job’s end,” he laughed awkwardly.

Nate opened his mouth to speak then but closed it again fast, sipping his drink thoughtfully. The gifts Eliot bought, the flowers for Sophie and the plant for Parker, that would’ve been a nice thought on any normal day. Obviously the girls were supposed to think their boyfriends were being kind and sweet, a great idea, except for the fact Eliot apparently knew that Parker was on the verge of dumping Hardison already. The hacker was a good guy, no doubt, but thoughtful enough for this particular gift? No, not really. That was pure Eliot, and the hitter ought to have know what trouble it would cause. He’d deny it of course, even to himself, but subconsciously, Nate had an idea the sabotage was quite deliberate.

“So, Parker dumped Hardison, I assume after the rest of us left the bar,” said the mastermind eventually, looking to Eliot for the rest of the story.

“I left the apartment just as Parker came up in the elevator,” he explained, rolling his eyes at this stupid game they were apparently playing. “She was upset, she never wanted to hurt Hardison, she ain’t that girl.”

“I know,” agreed Nate easily.

Sure, Parker said some dumb and thoughtless things at times, but she wasn’t malicious. She would have hated knowing she was hurting Hardison but she also couldn’t keep up the pretence of being happy in a relationship that didn’t work for her. Of course she would be upset, and Eliot would act as her guardian and protect just as he always did.

“When Hardison came up and found you two...” Nate prompted once again.

“Yeah, I had my arm around her,” Eliot confessed without pause, sitting up straight in his seat looking mad. “Parker was crying, and I was being a friend. What was I suppose to do, walk away and leave her sobbing in the stairwell? Yeah, that’d make me a real swell guy,” he said, getting up from his chair so fast he nearly knocked the seat flying.

Nate stared at Eliot’s back when he turned away and drank down much of his beer. Oh, this was going to be so much messier than he thought. Whilst Parker and Hardison’s break up might be something they could all move forward from in time, the unspoken something between Parker and Eliot was going to be a whole other ballgame. Sure, he believed nothing had happened yet, but Nate had a feeling it would only be a matter of time. Question was how he held this team together through the odd love triangle and transitioning relationships.

Nate downed the last of his drink and headed to the bar to fetch another. He might need several more yet if he was going to get through this situation and still be sane!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not so sure this chapter is going to be what you folks were expecting, but it is what it is and I do hope you like it :)

This was not an ideal situation. Both Nate and Sophie were thinking the self-same thing as they looked across the apartment/office and met each other’s eyes. It was less than a week since Parker dumped Hardison, and Eliot had got caught up in the middle of the break-up tornado. Over those few days, the grifter and the mastermind not involved in the mess tried to approach each of the younger members of their team in turn and build some bridges. It was next to impossible to expect Hardison, Eliot, and Parker to get along after so short a time, but clients lives and problems waited for no man, or woman, and Nate was determined his team was not going to fall apart over this. Sophie had a little more compassion for the parties involved, but at the same time, she knew the importance of their working together. She knew that they all knew it too. It was why they agreed to bury the hatchet and work together on the latest job that came up, even though they would prefer not to have to see each other right now.

Hardison had taken a little more persuasion than Parker or Eliot to come back and be a team player so soon. Of course, out of all three he was probably hurting the most, at least in the dented pride stakes. Nate had convinced Eliot not to let Hardison get to him, to think of the greater good of the work the team did. Sophie had caught up with Parker and assured her that nobody was mad at her. Hardison was hurt about being dumped, but he would work through that in time, and in the meantime, everybody just had to try and find a way to co-exist. The hacker himself had been far too upset to listen to reason at first. Nate tried to be understanding, but it wasn’t really easy. He saw the big picture, the people Team Leverage helped and the good they did. Petty squabbles and fall-outs amongst ‘the kids’ didn’t mean so much to him. Going in as united front with Sophie helped; she was encouraging and kind whilst Nate played bad cop and questioned Hardison’s ability to perform at his best under pressure. Eventually, the mastermind realised just exactly what incentive was needed to get Hardison ‘back in the saddle’ as it were - he offered to let him run the next job.

So here they were, the usual team of five. Four of them were sat along by the counter in front of the vid screen, whilst Hardison laid out how things were going to ‘go down’. It wasn’t so bad, though there had been a squabble when they first came in. Parker wouldn’t sit near Hardison’s desk or directly in his eye line. Eliot knew he ought to stay away from the both of them, and Nate had to agree, though orchestrating a seating plan seemed to become a nightmare. Eventually, Sophie took charge and arranged them all with no more fuss.

“So, basically the whole thing is gonna work like a video game...” said Hardison with conviction, though as he looked at his team, his eyes were focused more on Nate and Sophie than anyone.

Looking at Eliot made him angry and meeting Parker’s eyes might make him cry yet. The hacker knew neither reaction was any good to him right now. He was running this crew, for one job only, and he had to prove he had those skills he always told Nate were there in him. The pressure of working through his pain and anguish over the break-up ought to make it harder, but honestly, concentrating on anything that wasn’t his girlfriend dumping him, that was a plus for Hardison. He laid out his plan and was glad when nobody argued with him, save for Sophie asking if it wasn’t all a little complex. Hardison was sure he was right on this. The con needed to be bigger, more involved. Nate with his simple, old-fashioned schemes was all well and good, but Hardison was planning heists for a new generation. This was the age of the geek, and he was going to prove it, not just to his leader and his team as a whole, but to the girl who dumped him for not being enough, and the guy that seemed to want to steal her away. Hardison would show Eliot and Parker both that he was better than either of them could ever deserve. At least, that was his plan.

* * *

There were holes in the plan. Hardison didn’t see it, and Eliot didn’t feel like telling him. At first the hitter had been mad as hell at his hacker friend for accusing him of trying to steal Parker from him. He would never, ever do that, not to Hardison or to Parker, it just wouldn’t be right. Eliot’s team were his family now and all he really had in the world that mattered. Screwing them over just wasn’t an option. The way they accepted him back after Moreau... there was just no way he would hurt any of them on purpose, now more than ever.

Most of what Eliot felt for Hardison after he calmed the hell down was pity. Getting dumped wasn’t fun, and despite what people thought about his reputation with girls, Eliot had been dumped before now. Besides, this wasn’t just any chick that had kicked Hardison to the kerb, this was Parker. Losing her after spending so long trying to get her, that had to be breaking the hacker’s heart. Eliot felt bad for him, of course he did, but at the same time, he felt bad for Parker. She never meant to cause any of this, he believed that absolutely and completely. She was actually trying to make things better, time after time. She just messed up occasionally. Dumping Hardison wasn’t the real problem, the issue had been Parker’s agreeing to date him in the first place. Eliot could see from the start how it was going to blow up in all their faces, but it was not his place to say. He let the thing runs its course, and now here they were, awkward and snippy, one and all.

It was part way into the job. Hardison was with Nate, explaining his latest, greatest tactics, whilst in their ears they all heard Sophie hooking the marks, Mr & Miss Gold Grabber 2012. Eliot and Parker were alone together, sat in the back of the van with the doors wide open as they munched down on doughnuts. Eliot realised too late that the sweet treat he was eating had a bite mark in it, just the same as every other doughnut in the large box.

“Did you try all of these before you picked one out?” he asked Parker, his tone not half so harsh as it might usually be.

“How else do I know which one I want?” she asked, around a mouthful, before swallowing it down hard. “It’s impossible to pick out of choices if you haven’t tried them all first.”

There was a look on her face when she said it that Eliot didn’t like. It could be he was reading too much into it, but he’d seen that look before. Parker looked at safes that way, when they were tough to crack but she itched to try. That could not be a good thing. Eliot made a gesture near his ear and pulled out his own ear bud, waiting a beat until Parker caught on and did the same.

“What’s in your head, Parker?” he asked her straight out.

She knew it was a big deal that he asked that question. Usually, Parker let whatever she was thinking spill out of her mouth unfiltered, but she had learnt to be wary of late, especially where guys and relationships were concerned. She had screwed up so badly with Hardison, she couldn’t let that happen with Eliot. At the same time, she had got to wondering if maybe she should have chosen him in the first place. Not that anyone really presented her with the choice to make. Hardison made it plain he liked her a lot and was there, ready to be her boyfriend, if she wanted. Eliot never did that, though he was nice to her and he obviously cared.

Eliot was different with the women he dated. Mostly, it seemed to be about sex and little else, but those that had lasted longer than a weekend, that had met the team and all, Parker remembered each one with a frown. She never liked when Eliot seemed to want to stick with a woman, even if it was only for a week or so. She never wondered what that meant until now, until she came to realise that Hardison’s absence never bothered her like Eliot’s did.

“If I wasn’t around, would you miss me?” she asked him.

Eliot frowned. Neither answer to that question was going to come out right unless he trod very carefully. To say no was a lie, and one that would hurt her, but to say yes, she could easily take that all out of context. Eliot cleared his throat, ran his hand back through his hair.

“Damnit, Parker, what kind of question is that?” he asked, growling in frustration.

“The one in my head,” she replied smartly. “Which is what you asked for.”

Sometimes she was just too damn smart for her own good.

“If any person from this team left, I’d miss ‘em,” he shrugged then. “When Sophie cut out for a while, we missed her, right?”

“Yeah, but...” Parker began, only to be interrupted when Nate appeared.

“What are you two doing?” he asked suspiciously, looking from their faces to the earbuds in their hands.

“Nothin’,” said Eliot, shoving the comm-link back into his ear and moving further into the van out of sight.

He was muttering as if to talk to Sophie, but Nate heard the generic ‘hurry up’ type sentiments and knew it wasn’t what he really wanted to say. The guilty look on Parker’s face spoke volumes too, but now just wasn’t the time.

* * *

Hardison’s attitude didn’t matter to Eliot. He had enough temper of his own, anybody elses looked paltry by comparison. The hacker could pout, whine, and be an ass, and the hitter would let him be; he DID let him be, until things got ugly.

The next stage of the ever-complicated job involved him and Nate being down in the tunnels under the city, digging for gold that the team themselves had put there. That was fine, Eliot wasn’t afraid of the dark, small spaces, or anything like that. He knew his crew had his back, it was fine, until Hardison started changing things around.

“Surely it makes more sense for Nate to be the one in the supposedly fatal accident,” said Sophie when the conversation arose, casting an apologetic look towards her boyfriend for the insensitive phrasing. “Eliot’s character would be more easily bought off by the marks...”

“Hey, who is running this job?” asked the hacker too crossly.

“And what happened to listening to the ideas of others?” the grifter challenged, using words Hardison himself had spoken before - it did no good.

“He wants me to do it, fine,” Eliot growled. “Let’s just get the damn thing done.”

It was all fine whilst things were going according to the plan. It was after the fake rock fall and water going everywhere that Eliot realised Hardison was playing him. While up above them at ground level, Nate cut a new deal with Tommy and Barbar Madsen, Eliot found he was completely trapped inside the wet, filthy hole in the ground where he had been ‘digging for gold’.

“Hardison! Open the damn door!” he yelled pointlessly, since even a whisper would be transmitted easily through the earbud he wore.

“I’m sorry, what? You want me to help you out with somethin’?” asked the hacker.

Eliot growled low in his throat, lips twitching with anger and frustration. He knew that tone Hardison was using, it was a very distinctive tone. Apparently the hitter hoping they could all be grown up and sensible, at least whilst they were on the job, was too much to ask. Hardison was going to be a child about this, over something that hadn’t even damn well happened. Eliot was determined not to rise to it, no matter how much he was tempted.

“Hardison, open the door and let me out of this damn hole,” he ground out. “I want out, now!”

“Yeah, well. We don’t always get we want in life, huh?” said the hacker, leant back in his chair with a scowl on his face.

“Hardison, stop this!” said Sophie beside him then. “You’re not helping anyone.”

He knew she was right, but it was nice to have a little power here, to put Eliot in a position where he was upset and angry. Not that it took so very much to bring the hitter to fury, but for once Hardison liked being the cause of it. He had listened to what Nate and Sophie had said about Eliot never wanting to screw Hardison over, especially in his relationship with Parker. Hardison didn’t want to believe his bro was capable of such a thing, but somehow it was just easier to blame a third party and not the girl he gave his heart to only to have it get smushed.

“Hardison, don’t!” the very girl in question said in his ear then. “This isn’t funny.”

That made him do it, made him sit up and pay attention. He released the locks on the doors Eliot was fighting with, the momentum of the sudden release almost knocking the hitter off his feet.

“No, it really ain’t funny,” said the hacker, pushing away from the desk and stalking away.

Sophie watched him go and sighed. She wished she could wave a magic wand and fix all of this, not that she was sure how to put the pieces back together even then. Parker and Hardison didn’t work, she wondered if Parker and Eliot might, but it seemed someone was destined to get hurt no matter what. She hated that, just as much as those in the middle of the love triangle did, but there was nothing she could really do. She and Nate just had to stand on the side-lines and try to bring comfort and understanding where they could, all the time hoping things worked out. If they didn’t it could signal the end for this team, for this family of misfits that had come to rely so much on each other. That just might break all their hearts in the end.


	7. Chapter 7

There was no question that Nathan Ford had been a father. Sure, it was years ago now and his son was no longer around, but once you were a parent, the attitude never seemed to go away. He wasn’t actually scary like some of the foster fathers that Parker had known, but he still came off pretty harsh sometimes. Even Eliot looked like a kicked puppy when Nate got his Dad on, mostly because he usually had a point, Parker suspected.

They were behaving like kids, that’s what Nate said. Parker figured maybe her and Eliot had made mistakes but it was definitely Hardison who was being the most like a baby. She hurt him and she understood that, but so far all he seemed to do was be cranky and take the whole upset thing out on Eliot. Anybody would think it was the hitter that dumped Hardison rather than Parker, and that confused her a lot.

“Now we don’t have another job lined up right now, and frankly I think that’s a good thing!” said Nate, yelling across the bar that was empty save for his crew. “I cannot have you three behaving like this when we’re running game on a mark. Somebody is gonna end up getting killed and I’m not going to be responsible for that,” he explained to Parker, Hardison, and Eliot, none of which would look at him.

Sophie winced at the harshness of her partner’s tone, and reached a hand out to his arm. She encouraged him to step back and let her speak, after all, talking things out was more her area.

“We just think now would be a good time for the three of you to think about how best to move forward,” she explained carefully. “I understand you all have your own reasons to be hurt and angry, but you must see we can’t go on like this?”

None of them even looked at her, nevermind responded with any actual words. Sophie was pretty sure Hardison muttered something and Eliot almost certainly growled. Neither response was what she was looking for.

“I guess you all need to make a decision as to what is most important here,” she said, a little less kindly than before. “Our group friendship and the important work we do, or all your petty squabbles and unfounded jealousies.”

With that, Sophie turned and swept out to the back and up the stairs to the apartment. She pulled Nate by the hand so he would follow, which he did with minimal fuss. There was nothing more they could do now but wait and see what became of the others being left alone together.

They were usually fairly sensible people. Childish on occasion, certainly, even Eliot who usually got so mad when Hardison or Parker seemed unprofessional and silly, but they were usually pretty serious about their jobs. Sophie dreaded the idea of this team, her precious hand-built family, breaking up all of a sudden. She needed each of these people in her life, and that seemed like a selfish reason to keep them all together. On the other hand, there was the work they did, the way they helped people. All that would have to end if all three younger members of the team, or perhaps even one of them, chose to walk away.

Nate let out a long sigh as soon as they reached the apartment, the anger from before giving way to melancholy. He was clearly having the same thoughts as Sophie, the worry that all this might soon be over. This was his family too, as crazy as the idea might seem, and he really did not want to lose anyone else he cared about from his life.

“You think they can figure this out?” asked Sophie, propping herself on the arm of the couch.

“I’d like to think so,” Nate nodded as he wandered over and stood before her. “I knew it was a mistake letting internal dating happen,” he sighed, putting a hand to his face.

“Hypocrite,” Sophie was smirking when he met her eyes.

He found a smile as he leaned in to kiss her, a sweet and tender moment turning intense for a second or two before they parted.

“If only Parker had made the right choice in the beginning,” said Sophie thoughtfully, fingers idly playing with the lapels of Nate’s jacket. “It might have been easier for Hardison to accept her with Eliot then...”

“I’m sorry, what?” asked Nate, literally shaking his head in confusion. “If Parker had chosen Eliot? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, Nate, come on!” Sophie chuckled. “You’re supposed to be the Mastermind here. You don’t see the connection between the two of them?”

Nate opened his mouth to argue but found he really couldn’t. He would not have automatically paired up Eliot and Parker as a romantic couple. At the same time, he did often send them out on jobs together, and they always worked well. Eliot made a point of checking Parker was eating right, and she had a tendency to be the first one to help patch Eliot up when he was hurt. They did have a pretty tight relationship, he supposed. Eliot even taught Parker self-defence before he worked with anyone else, and she did have this odd level of trust in him.

“Huh,” said Nate as he thought it over.

Sophie only grinned. She knew now that Nate saw her point exactly, he just had to take the time to think about. Eliot and Parker had been the most obvious pairing to her, and she had worried from the beginning what kind of mess might be made if Hardison’s crush developed too much. The smile slid from her face when she was reminded that they were very much in the middle of that mess now.

Down in the bar, she knew Eliot and Parker certainly didn’t look much like a potential couple. They were sat either end of the bar, whilst Hardison lounged in a booth across the room, each of the three acting as if they had no idea they weren’t alone.

Parker hated this. She hated that just because she didn’t want to date Hardison anymore, things had to be this way. The two guys had been such good friends to each other, and now they couldn’t seem to be in room together without trouble starting. They were both her friends too, some of the best she ever had, and Parker knew she had ruined it all. She had broken it and now she had to fix it. The problem was, she didn’t really know how, and the one person she would most like to ask for help was one of the people she couldn’t talk to.

Looking sideways down the bar at Eliot, Parker huffed and blew her bangs off her forehead. Nope, she really couldn’t talk to him about this right now. Instead, she turned on her bar stool and faced Hardison. Parker had to start with her so-called ex-boyfriend. After all, he was the one she hurt most, as well as the one acting most like a kid. She hopped down from the barstool and walked over, stood by the booth with her arms folded and a scowl on her face until Hardison deigned to look her way.

“You need to stop blaming Eliot,” she said matter-of-factly. “I broke up with you, and I know that’s not great for you, but it’s not his fault,” she explained as one might to a child, jerking her thumb over her shoulder when she referred to Eliot again.

“You don’t get it, mama,” Hardison sadly shook his head, but before he could turn away, Parker pulled him around by his shoulder.

“No, I don’t get it!” she told him, desperate not to get upset but finding it hard.

Parker wasn’t much for the crying as a rule, not in front of people anyway. This team, this family she had built, they made her feel safe enough to let go a little, show a little of what was inside. They were also the only people that could reduce her to tears themselves, because she just cared that much about them.

“He didn’t do anything, Hardison,” she insisted. “Eliot is just... He’s Eliot. He helps me and he cares, but he does the same for you too,” she reminded him, biting her lip the moment her voice wobbled.

“You guys can stop talkin’ about me any time, okay?” said Eliot then, appearing at Parker’s shoulder. “But she’s right, man. I didn’t do anything to make you act this way. I’m sorry you got your heart broken, but you ain’t the only one that ever happened to,” he said seriously.

Hardison looked up at the hitter and then to the thief beside him. He had words enough to say but none were willing to pass his lips. The hacker didn’t need this crap, and he muttered as such, when he suddenly got up and stormed out of the bar. Parker moved to run after him, but Eliot’s hand at her arm pulled her back.

“Let him go, sweetheart,” he urged her, pretty sure he was right in his assessment of the situation.

Hardison was hurting, a lot. No doubt he bolted so that they wouldn’t see him cry, and Eliot could respect that. Even the toughest of men shed tears sometimes, and he oughta know, but you did it in private if you possibly could. Of course, Hardison wasn’t the only one upset in all this. The fact Parker didn’t run out when Eliot told her not to spoke volumes. She didn’t usually care for other people’s rules, not even her hitter friend’s advice sometimes. She was as close to sobbing as her ex was. Eliot hated that.

“I’m getting a beer,” he said, turning away towards the bar.

Parker didn’t answer, just stood staring at the door still, trying to get her bearings. She really had wounded Hardison when she dumped him, maybe again now when she yelled at him for his behaviour towards Eliot. She couldn’t help it. Parker only wanted things back how they used to be, and telling people how to act and what to do seemed like a plan at the time. She hoped rather than believed such a thing could work. You could just about force an animal to do what you told them, maybe even a small child, but grown up people, they had their own minds and they would always do what they wanted over what other people told them. Parker knew that best of anybody, living as she did to her own code, not even caring what societies rules might dictate.

Eventually she drifted back to the bar, sat down just at the right moment for Eliot to put a drink in front of her. He hadn’t bothered to ask what she wanted, he just fixed her up with her usual, then popped the cap off a bottle of his favourite beer. It’d be nice if everything came as easy as the drink, if either of them knew what to say for the best, but they didn’t. Every comforting line that ran through Eliot’s head sounded cliché and dumb. Parker was just at a complete loss, feeling as if she were drowning in the deep end of the pool. She’d never been here before, and she didn’t know how to get out.

“He’ll come around,” said Eliot eventually, leaning across from the service side of the bar with his beer bottle between his hands. “When he calms down and everything, he’ll be okay.”

“Really?” Parker asked, looking up to meet his eyes. “You believe that?”

“Yeah,” Eliot nodded slowly. “Parker, people break up sometimes, and yeah, it hurts a lot, but you have to get over it. Some day Hardison is gonna realise that you did the right thing for the both of you, and that might take a while, but he will.”

Parker wanted to believe that. This was Eliot, after all, he didn’t lie to her, and he knew a whole lot about relationships, that was for sure. Still, it didn’t seem as if Hardison would ever be the same again as things stood now. Parker was pretty sure she never would be either.

“Sometimes I think this team would have been better off without me in it,” she sighed.

“Bull!” Eliot responded sharply. “Seriously, Parker? This team would not function without you in it. It wouldn’t work without any one of us, because this is how it’s supposed to be,” he said definitely, pointing a finger into the bar top to emphasise each important word. “We all need each other.”

Parker met his eyes and couldn’t look away. They all needed each other. Yeah, she believed that, but above all other members of the team, Parker believed she needed Eliot most. It was scary as hell to realise it, but it was there and it so real that Parker could hardly stand it. If she had felt this way about Hardison, maybe they could’ve been together like he wanted, but she never did. Only Eliot caused these feelings in her, but Parker wasn’t so sure it was okay to tell him that.

“Sometimes I think that... that if I’d just made a move sooner, then Hardison wouldn’t ever have thought...” she stumbled over what she meant to say, swallowing hard and trying to continue. “Because you and me would have been...”

Parker shook her head as her voice faded away. She didn’t know how to do this, how to explain herself. Feelings and caring, it never came naturally to her. She had so few people that ever earned her trust or love in any form. There was Archie, a couple of fellow foster kids maybe, but nobody like the members of her team. Parker sure never felt the same for everybody else how she felt for Eliot. His eyes locked on hers like this, the two of them so close that she could feel his breath in her face, she couldn’t stand it.

“Parker?” he asked, full of concern, like always.

Honestly, Eliot was worried about what was happening here. Parker didn’t usually get so stuck trying to talk, especially not to him. She said whatever was in her head, no filter. As annoying as that could be, as inappropriate too, it came in useful. At least he knew what she was thinking and to always take her at face value. This was new, and weird, and just a little scary.

“I... I have to go,” said Parker suddenly, and then she was gone.

Eliot barely managed to blink, never mind yell for her to stop, before she was out of there, the door to McRorys swinging shut behind her with a clang.

“There’s something wrong with that woman,” he muttered to himself, and it bothered him that he might know just exactly what her problem was.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t think I ever wrote a chapter that focuses this much on Hardison & Parker, but it needs resolving before the E/P can truly begin.

Hardison knew exactly who was breaking into his apartment long before Parker appeared. All his alarms and booby traps were off, so it wasn’t as if she’d get hurt. Hell, even if he left them on, Hardison doubted there was anything his perfect thief couldn’t get past. He choked on just the thought of Parker being his anymore, forced down the lump in his throat. He wasn’t going to cry in front of her. He had walked out of McRory’s last night so he didn’t make a damn fool of himself. Well, that was a good seventy five percent of the reason anyway. The rest he would worry on later.

“Hey,” said Parker as she appeared as if from nowhere.

“Hey yourself,” Hardison replied, looking across at her.

She was perfectly framed by the doorway, whilst he was sat on the end of the bed, elbows on his knees, looking lost. This was what they had been reduced to. The best of friends, who phased through a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, and now here they were on the other side. How they moved forward, neither had a clue. She just wasn’t equipped to deal with this, and honestly, as much as he acted tough at times, he was crumbling under the pressure too.

“I’m sorry,” said Parker, feeling strange just speaking the words and more weird to realise how very much she meant them.

“For which part?” asked Hardison, watching her step cautiously into his room.

Parker looked more thoughtful than he’d ever seen her. Eventually she shrugged her slim shoulders, and then hugged herself.

“All the parts?” she tried. “Mostly that things got so messed up,” she sniffed, as if fighting off another crying jag. “I know it’s all my fault, and... and I’m sorry.”

Hardison itched to tell her no, that this wasn’t all her fault, whilst his heart did battle with his head saying it really was Parker that was to blame, her and Eliot cheating behind his back. It was easier to put it all on Eliot. Blaming Parker felt ugly and wrong, she was just too good a person. Sure, she was wacky and all, always had been, but she was so innocent in her heart, in spite of her criminal ways.

Eliot was the bad guy. He even called himself that. He was the hitter, the killer, and though the team cared for him like a brother or similar, making him the bad guy just wasn’t a stretch if a person wanted to do that. It was easy for Hardison to pin his heart-ache on him. If he didn’t blame Eliot for stealing Parker away, if she hadn’t gotten a better offer to run to, that meant she dumped Hardison because she just didn’t want to be with him. That hurt so much worse.

“Tell me true, Parker, please,” he said then, voice cracking with emotion that he couldn’t help. “You and Eliot ever do anything?...” he waved his hand in some vague gesture, not really comfortable using the s-e-x word or whatever when it came to his girl and his brah.

“He’s never kissed me or anything,” she shook her head, her face wrinkling up with what had to be deep thought.

Nobody made that face in disgust at the idea of macking on Eliot Spencer, Hardison would admit that much. Dude could get just about any woman he wanted, but even if he did want Parker, would the hitter really make a move at the expense of his ‘brother’? Hardison knew he wouldn’t, not really.

“I hate this,” said Parker then. “I hate that it can’t be how it was before,” she sighed heavily as she came and sat beside him.

Hardison’s instinct told him to run and to hug her all at the same time. Neither were the right thing to do and he knew it, so he didn’t do anything, just stayed put, staring at the opposite wall.

“You ain’t the only one, girl,” he told her honestly.

There was no way around all of this, nobody to blame really. That was both the worst and the best part of this whole situation, it was simply nobodies fault. You couldn’t make yourself or another person feel things they didn’t feel. Hardison couldn’t pin the blame on Parker or Eliot, and she couldn’t make it Hardison’s fault either. They just didn’t work out, it happened. It also hurt, a lot.

“So, what happens now?” asked Parker after a long silence that clearly made her uncomfortable. “I never had a boyfriend before so I don’t exactly know what comes after you break up with them.”

She knew she was saying all the wrong things. Parker never used to know or care about it, but she knew now, she just couldn’t see another way around this. She needed someone to tell her what to do. Eliot didn’t seem like a reasonable option after what happened in the bar. God only knew what that was, but these feelings had just come over Parker and she had to run before she did something dumb or wrong. She was bound to do one, the other, or both!

She came to Hardison, because despite breaking up with him, she still cared and hoped he cared for her too. Sophie said he wouldn’t be this hurt if he didn’t care, that was the point. Emotions were so complicated. Parker sometimes wished she could go back to having a minimal amount of them. Life was so much easier then, but it was also lonely.

“I don’t think there’s a right thing to do or an answer to what comes next, Parker,” said Hardison, leaning over and resting his chin in his hands. “I guess we just have to find a way to move forward, get past this...”

“We can do that, right?” she asked him, more hopefully than anything else.

“Honestly? I don’t know,” the hacker shrugged, glancing up at her. “I love you, Parker. I can’t just go turn that off and forget what we had, what we were.”

“It’s not that I don’t like you, Hardison,” she promised him. “I just... I can’t be what you want me to be.”

Hardison opened his mouth to say he just wanted her to be herself, but already he knew that would be a lie. Parker accused him of trying to change her before and he denied it. After a lot of hours thinking, and not a whole lot of sleeping, he had started to realise that she had a point. Trying to take her on a normal vacation or to dinner in a fancy restaurant, those things weren’t Parker. He would love to imagine a future with a big house and two point four kids with her some day, but somehow Hardison doubted it would ever happen, or that Parker would really want it to. She wasn’t that girl, and in the end she knew they would both end up miserable if they stuck together as anything more than friends. She was right, and Hardison knew it. That was the part that hurt most of all.

“Maybe there’s just no goin’ back, mama,” he said, looking sideways at her. “Maybe we all do better if I just walk away.”

Parker didn’t want that, she really didn’t, and she made it plain when a lone tear streaked down her cheek.

“But you’re my best friend,” she told him, like a small child that just didn’t understand why things were so hard.

Neither of them knew what to say here and were stopped from having to try when their cell phones buzzed simultaneously. Hardison and Parker both reached into their pockets and wore twin frowns when they realised Sophie was sending a distress call. God only knew what was happening at seven in the morning that was so urgent, but their friend clearly needed them, so they would go.

* * *

“I woke up and he was gone,” Sophie explained, still in a state over Nate’s apparent disappearance. “All the note says is he had to go and not to worry. Yeah, because that’s going to bloody happen!” she continued both sarcastic and angry as she waved said note around in the air.

Parker, Hardison, and Eliot were positioned around the apartment, on the couch, at his desk, and by the kitchen counter respectively. They were just far enough apart that they didn’t have to speak to each other or even make eye contact if they didn’t want to. It seemed safer that way until things were figured out.

Eliot didn’t know what to think about Parker after yesterday when she looked set on kissing him before bolting out the door. It had happened that one time, a couple of weeks ago. After explaining how she had to break up with Hardison, how she missed Eliot more when he wasn’t around than she ever did her boyfriend, she had laid her lips on the hitter and then run for the door. He felt sure the same thing was going to happen last night, and was equal parts releived and disappointed when it hadn’t quite happened. That bothered Eliot in and of itself.

Parker herself was worried about Hardison following through on leaving, whilst the hacker was seriously contemplating his options still. All this was just barely over-ridden by worries about Nate and where he might’ve gone to alone.

“He wouldn’t pull a con by himself,” said Eliot, shaking his head. “The man’s not that dumb.”

“Really? You believe that?” Sophie asked with wide eyes. “Wouldn’t be the first time Nate’s gone off half-cocked at the first sign of trouble.”

“But if it was a job he’d tell us, right?” asked Parker, looking from Sophie to Eliot, and then quickly away when she realised that was a very bad plan. “I can’t think where he’d go without telling us...”

“I can tell you exactly where,” said Hardision then, grabbing everyone’s attention as he punched a visual up onto the screen. “Right here, the United States Patent Office in Alexandria, Virginia. That’s where our man Nate is right now.”

The team all drifted forward to gather around their usual counter in front of the vid screen. None of them had an idea why Nate would be headed to the patent office of all places, and nobody even ventured a guess. They all knew what came next, a daring rescue to get Nate out of whatever trouble he was bound to get into when left to his own devices. The question then became, could they work together well enough to get this job done? All eyes seemed to turn to Hardison for the answer, and it was Sophie who voiced the question.

“Well? Did you guys figure things out yet? Can you actually work together, because I’ll say this much, if you’re going to screw up, this is not the job to do it on!” she told them definitely.

Hardison looked from her to Parker and then finally at Eliot.

“I’m in if you guys are,” the hitter shrugged. “I got nothin’ to fight about, not with you, man,” he said directly to Hardison.

The hacker knew he needed to suck it up and just do it. That didn’t apply solely to this job either, but for any that came up in the future. The world did not revolve around him and his feelings alone, it was selfish to think anything did. Right now, Nate needed them all to pull together. Clients would still need them after this. It was time to call a truce.

“I’m in too,” he said. “And I’m sorry, brah,” he told Eliot, getting up from his seat and holding out a hand to shake. “I took that stuff out on you when...”

“Forget it,” his friend told him with a shake of his head. “It’s done,” he assured him, not shaking his hand but going for the usual high five / fist bump combo, with a smirk on his lips.

“Parker?” said Sophie, tilting her head as she stared at the little thief.

Though it pleased the blonde to see her two guys getting along again, she was still a little worried about these feelings she seemed to be developing for Eliot. That was all way too scary, but Nate was potentially in trouble and that was scarier still. She couldn’t lose her team, her family.

“Nate would come for us if we were in trouble,” she said eventually. “So, we go for him, together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is going on a mini-hiatus for the duration of December and will return in the new year. I do this every year with the work in progress fics because I write & post a lot of Christmas-related, exchange, and gift fics in December, plus I have RL stuff going on. I’m sorry to anyone this disappoints, but I will be back in the new year and this fic will continue and ultimately be finished eventually.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m ba-ack! ;) Did anybody miss me? Or at the very least this fic? Well, its back now, and regular updates shall be resumed from here on out. Now where did we leave everybody? Oh, yes! The Radio Job! :)

They had to work together. Parker, Eliot, and Hardison were all very aware of the fact that they had to put all personal feelings aside if they were ever going to pull off this job, and this one above all others had to go well. Nate had put himself in harms way. They all ought to have guessed he had a pretty good reason. Lo and behold, good old Jimmy Ford was at the bottom of it.

Busting into the patent office, for some unknown patent among thousands, it was ridiculous. Eliot was not at all happy to be in the middle of this himself, not when it seemed Latimer was involved too. Surrounded by cops, Homeland security, it was becoming more insane by the second. Though he tried to trust in the Mastermind of their team to come up with a plan, Eliot was always calculating exit strategies, he never did stop. If nothing else, he had to get Nate, Sophie, Hardison, and Parker out of this building alive, and preferably safe from capture. His life, even Jimmy Ford’s life, they could hang in the balance if they must; the team came first.

It was all a little too Die Hard for Eliot. Talking on the radio to the cop outside, trying his best to sound as if he were at least a Boston resident, if not born and raised. His Southern accent just would not be quashed and so he seemed to have gotten himself the handle of ‘cowboy’. He could live with that, just so long as his contact with the outside world helped them get out of this place.

Thinking about the task at hand, it made it a little easier to pretend the team was as it had always been. That Eliot and Hardison hadn’t recently got into a fight, that Parker hadn’t pretty much made a pass at her hitter friend. It was messy and the way out of said mess did not look simple. Hell, Eliot couldn’t help but think that busting out of a fifty storey building surrounded by cops and authorities would be easier. Seemed they were going to find out sometime soon anyway.

Eliot shook his head clear of all these thoughts. He was going to end up as crazy as Parker if he kept on letting his mind wander, not to mention way more beat up than he intended. This next part of the plan was not his favourite, but he knew why Nate was asking him to do it. The goons showed up right on time, and Eliot took a deep breath. What came next was not going to be pretty, but that was the idea. The cops needed to see him get beat down, and so it was.

It took every ounce of concentration Eliot had to take the beating without fighting back. At the same time he was trying to move his body in the right ways, react convincingly but block out the real pain being caused to his body. The bad guys had to believe they were winning, it had to make a good show through the glass to the audience below. Besides, in a couple of minutes, out of view of anyone, Eliot could get his own back.

The fight flipped in a second, like the switch inside the hitter’s head that brought him back to full strength and speed. He dispatched all three of the hired help in seconds, leaving them sprawled on the floor in an ungainly heap.

On the radio, he told his cop ‘friend’ that everyone was fine, even as his muscles roared with hot pain, and a couple of joints protested at being moved at all. Eliot had got up and walked away from much worse than this particular beating, but even he needed a couple of minutes to get his bearings before he faced the others. Those couple of minutes he did not get as Parker appeared at the end of the corridor, looking panicked.

“Are you okay?” she asked him, her voice carrying easily down the long hallway.

“Fine,” Eliot growled, even as he popped his shoulder back into place. “What are you doin’ up here? Thought you were helpin’ Nate’s dad find the patent?”

“I was,” she agreed as they met in the middle of the corridor. “I just... It sounded bad,” she winced even as she thought of the fight she had heard through her earbud. “Normally I can just imagine all the punches are you hitting other people. This time I knew you were the one getting hurt and... and it made my stomach tie in knots,” she explained badly, and she knew it too.

It was sweet in a Parker kind of way and Eliot wanted to be grateful and nice about it, only he couldn’t. The last thing they needed in the middle of a job was to make things even more complicated between them. Hardison was over the whole Eliot stealing Parker away thing. If she kept acting on whatever feelings she was having in his direction, the hitter knew it would only make matters that much worse for everyone. If it must be dealt with, now was still not the time.

“Parker, I’m fine,” he promised her. “No, it ain’t fun letting guys beat up on me, but I can take it. You know I can.”

He found a small smile for her that she managed to return. Of course Parker knew Eliot was tough, he was the toughest guy she ever met and at the same time, one the nicest guys too. She was well aware that it was crazy that she felt the need to come ask him if he was okay. He was always okay, because he was Eliot. Just today it felt different, like she couldn’t deal unless she actually saw him all in one piece and knew for sure he wasn’t badly injured.

“Parker!” a voice barked in her ear there. “I thought I asked you stay here and help my dad?”

“Nate, I was...” she began to explain, but Eliot cut in.

“She’s headed back down now,” the hitter said fast, not wanting the rest to make a deal about the thief coming after him to check how he was.

It was only going to make more trouble. As it was, Hardison, Sophie, and Nate must’ve heard Parker ask Eliot if he was okay. They might get away with that much if nothing else was said on the matter. In the end, they would have to deal with this, Parker’s feelings for Eliot that seemed to be growing all the time, or at the very least becoming more uncovered every time they talked. As Eliot had decided before, however, now was most definitely not the time. They had a job to do, and it seemed Nate wanted to get to the next stage of the plan already. Everything else could wait until later.

* * *

Parker didn’t used to have a lot of feelings or emotions. She laughed at other people who seemed to care so much for others, worried so much about silly little things. Since she became a part of Team Leverage, Parker learnt what it was to love other people, to feel sympathy and empathy. She liked that she had ‘grown as a person’, at least that was what Sophie called it. The downside, Parker found, was that when bad things happened, she was sad a lot more and for a lot longer. That part she hated but there seemed to be no way to switch it off. If she wanted the upsides to being close and part of a family type situation, she had to also put up with the downsides, the tears and the worry.

Right now they were in Lucille, Eliot gunning the engine as they headed for the warehouse district. Jimmy Ford was down there, walking into a trap by all accounts and if they didn’t get there fast enough, Parker dreaded to think what was going to happen.

Nate was yelling, much of it incoherent and over-the-top. Sophie was gripping her seat with both hands, looking as panicked as anyone had ever seen her. Hardison tapped away on his keyboard, bouncing satellite signals around, trying to pinpoint Jimmy’s exact location. Eliot drove like a man possessed. Parker could only see the back of his head from here but even from that she knew how tense he was feeling. The muscles in his arms were taught, his knuckles probably white on the steering wheel. He was doing his best, pushing Lucille as hard as he could. It might not be enough, but damnit he was going to try, because that was what Eliot always did.

Parker didn’t know what to do. Feeling useless didn’t suit her. She needed to be doing something, anything, and yet she was stuck in her seat, just waiting for the warehouses to come into view.

It was taking too long. Parker listened as Nate talked to Jimmy, begging him to get out of the building as fast as he could. Talk of C4 made Parker shudder. She usually liked explosions, but right now she dreaded what was about to happen. Nate’s father, a man that screwed them all over before but that was loved still by his son. Parker could understand that, despite her inability to grasp so many other feelings. Archie was the closest she ever had to a dad, and yet he had gotten her into trouble before now, not always treated her so well. If he was somewhere in danger, she would still go after him, she had done so in fact, against a Steranko that she only escaped from thanks to her team. It brought tears to her eyes just considering what might happen next.

“Dad! We’re here!” Nate yelled then. “I’m coming in!”

He dived out of the van and Eliot followed. On instinct, Parker leapt out too, before Sophie or Hardison could stop her. Nate ran in what seemed like slow motion, Eliot hard on his heels. Parker followed behind, feet pounding against the asphalt, and then something in the air changed. A split second before the explosion came, Parker felt it. There was no time to shout or warn anybody, and the blast blew Nate and Eliot clean off their feet.

Parker couldn’t explain how she stayed upright, even as the heat of the flames licked at her skin. The boom was so loud she felt her ears would be ringing for days, and debris falling all around threatened to slice pieces from her body. Parker just kept pushing. She landed on the ground between Nate and Eliot, both of them miraculously conscious and barely injured it seemed.

The hitter grabbed at his friend, shaking him, trying to get an answer and ensure he was okay. Parker could only lie there and stare first at Nate and Eliot, then over at the remnants of the warehouse before them. If they had been a minute sooner, they still couldn’t have saved Jimmy Ford from his fate, but they might all have ended their lives with him. Nate could’ve been in that explosion, Eliot too. The thought of it made Parker want to throw up and cry and a hundred other things all at the same time.

A strange burst of sound escaped her lips, a combination of a laugh and a scream as she collapsed against Eliot’s side. He leant over her to check more on Nate, and then when Hardison and Sophie came to assist, he switched his focus to Parker.

Eliot was talking to her, she could see his lips moving, and yet could barely make out a sound. Her ears still rang with the sonic boom from the explosion, but she knew he was asking if she was okay. Parker tried to nod her head, to let him know she was fine, but the shock of what just happened was scrambling everything from the thoughts in her head to her ability to co-ordinate her limbs. As Sophie and Hardison got Nate up from the floor, out of the way of the debris that continued to rain down, Eliot wasted no time in grabbing hold of Parker and lifting her clean off the ground.

The little thief clung onto the hero of their team, only now realising there was a pain somewhere in her leg. It was a dull sort of an ache really and she wondered vaguely if she had twisted it when she fell down from the explosion. As the darkness started to come over her, Parker thought she felt water run down her pant leg, and then there was nothing but black.

 


	10. Chapter 10

Parker felt so groggy. Last time she felt this bad... honestly, Parker couldn’t remember the last time. She really didn’t suffer from hangovers and rarely got sick, but right now she felt as if she might be both at once. Her eyes opened to a dimly lit room and any shapes she might’ve made out surrounding her seemed to swim in and out of focus for a long while. The only reason Parker wasn’t freaking out was because she knew she wasn’t alone. Eliot was there, and that meant everything was going to be okay.

“’S okay, sweetheart,” he told her in his calmest, gentlest voice.

It didn’t show itself often, but Parker had heard that tone before. Eliot mostly used it around kids or animals, anyone or anything that might startle easy. That wasn’t usually Parker and yet, right now she appreciated it a lot.

“What happened?” she asked when her voice eventually decided to comply to her demands, even then the words came out hoarse.

Eliot brought a plastic cup of water to her lips. Parker struggled a moment to co-ordinate her limbs, but eventually took the cup from him and drank at least half the water. She needed that. Parker felt as if she was hit by a truck. It was only then she recalled what had really happened. The warehouse, the explosion, Nate’s father.

Tears came to Parker’s eyes that she wasn’t ready for and couldn’t control. A yelp came from her lips, and her hand shot up to cover her mouth just as soon as she registered the sound came from her. Eliot recognised shock when he saw it and immediately moved to sit on the bed, putting his hands to Parker’s shoulders.

“Hey,” he got her eyes on him with one word. “Parker, it’s okay,” he promised her. “The whole team, we’re all okay, I promise.”

He was right, and Parker knew it. Even if she hadn’t been sure, she trusted what Eliot was telling her. Of course, she knew the slight untruth in his words. Everyone was physically okay, as far as she knew, but Nate must be feeling so much pain. He and Jimmy never did get along all that well, but he was his father. One thing was as sure as anything in Parker’s mind - Jimmy Ford was dead.

Parker let her head drop forward onto Eliot’s chest and his arms went automatically around her as she cried. She didn’t do this very much, and yet lately there seemed to be one situation after another that reduced her to tears. If anything should upset her, being blown up was one. That and knowing a good friend’s relative had died in the same explosion. Parker felt she was justified in her crying and apparently Eliot agreed.

“Let it all out, babe,” he said, rubbing her back gently. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not” she gurgled, words muffled by emotion and her face being mostly in his shirt. “How can it be okay?” she asked, lifting her head up so fast she very nearly clocked him in the chin. “Eliot, he died. Nate’s father, he died,” she repeated, as if he was too dumb to realise it.

“I know,” he nodded once, not sure what else to add.

There was little comfort he could give apart from what he had already said. They were all still alive, the entire team, and that was Eliot’s first priority. Yes, it was shocking and awful that Jimmy had to die, and Nate would suffer because of that. Eliot didn’t like himself for thinking it, but Ford Sr was a much more acceptable loss than one of his team, his family.

“Priority one is you, Parker,” said Eliot, his thumb removing tears from her cheek and running down her face. “How’re you feelin’ now?”

She frowned a little, gingerly shook her head in the negative.

“I don’t know. Things are... wibbly wobbly,” she said, explaining badly and she knew it.

Eliot smirked a little at her phrasing. It was too amusing not to react, even in this serious situation.

“That’s the concussion, and the painkillers will probably add to it, but you need 'em, okay?” he explained, at which she carefully nodded.

Parker hated to take pills, but Eliot was here and he was telling her it was necessary. She trusted that whatever he handed her was exactly what he said it was, and for her own good in the long run. Honestly, anything that stopped the aches and pains all over her body would be welcome right now. Her head never felt this delicate and it would be the scariest thing if she were alone, or if she hadn’t know what happened to cause it.

“Life is stupidly short,” she said, a thought from her head spoken aloud without much condiering it, such was Parker’s way.

Eliot didn’t know what he could say to that. He just put the painkillers into the thief’s left hand and the plastic cup of water into her right, encouraging her to swallow them already. She did as he asked, but the thoughtful frown would not shift off her face.

“Any of us could die, any day,” she continued, at which Eliot cut into her thoughts.

“Hey, don’t you start going down that road, Parker,” he told her sharply, making her look his way. “It’s important to know your limits, but to live life as full as you can because the end could be right around the corner,” he advised, eyes locked onto hers. “At the same time, you live your life in fear of it ending, you’ll drive yourself crazy.”

“I’m already crazy,” she shrugged, only half joking perhaps as the corners of her mouth curved into a slight smile, and then the frown was back. “It just makes me feel weird. Knowing that one minute we were in the patent building talking to Jimmy Ford and then suddenly, he’s gone,” she said, hugging herself. “It was so fast and so stupid.”

“I know,” Eliot nodded once.

He didn’t want her thinking too much about this, didn’t want to consider it himself either. Every day, Eliot threw himself into situations he might not come out of. Most of the time, he knew he could win the fight, disarm the goon, save both the team and himself. Other times, it wasn’t so clear. He lived with his own mortality every day, but so did Parker, in a different way. Gravity could out-do her one day, if her line snapped or a leap didn’t come off. Everybody took risks all the time, that much was true, but Team Leverage weren’t exactly your average folks doing everyday jobs. They took bigger chances, they risked more, their own lives and each others too. On the surface, that would probably seem stupid to anyone else, but for them, it was just what they did.

“Nate must be broken,” said Parker, trying to meet Eliot’s eyes. “Will he be okay?”

“He’s pretty shaken up,” he admitted. “But death is a part of life. Eventually, you have to work past it.”

He said it so matter of factly, even though he knew it was never that easy. Losing people you loved, even people you just knew, it was always tough. The closer the friend or family member, the deeper the cut, and it took that much longer to heal. Besides, Jimmy Ford hadn’t just died from some illness or accident. Somebody killed him. Eliot already knew that Nate was going to be looking for vengeance. If it came down to it, his team would back him, whether it was the good and sensible choice or not.

Parker knew nothing of any of this. She was just feeling sick and empty inside. She lived her life so frivolously, she never thought much about it coming to an end. Members of her team got hurt sometimes, risked being caught and locked up. She never did consider the idea of any of them dying on her, not even Eliot. He was so much like a superhero from one of Hardison’s comic books or movies. It seemed to her that Eliot would go on forever, being invincible. Maybe Jimmy Ford thought he was unbeatable too, and he had been wrong. Her breath quickened as she considered the loss of Eliot and what that would do to her. The loss of any member of her team would leave Parker broken, but Eliot, she couldn’t even bear to imagine it. Tears came back to her eyes and a kind of panic rose in her chest. Her reaction was such that Eliot, who had stood to leave the room, now turned back to stare at her.

“Parker?”

“Don’t go,” she told him, reaching for his hand, though her words were much more than about his walking out of the room. “I can’t... If I lost you, Eliot... I never thought I needed anybody, but this team came along, and you’re always there for me,” she cried, feeling so stupid but unable to help it.

“Hey, shh, it’s okay,” he told her, coming back to sit beside her and hold her as she started up crying again.

This wasn’t Parker, but the shock of what had happened, mixed with the concussion and the fast-working drugs, it was to be expected that she would act a little out of character. What she said was true enough, she never did have family before. This team, it had become that, most definitely. They all loved each other in their own ways, and it was also true that Eliot and Parker were as close to each other as to anyone. When she broke up with Hardison and the hacker blamed his bro, Eliot had denied it. He never made a move on Parker and he never would, not least because he couldn’t deserve her, but more over because it would break Hardison’s heart. It had certainly occurred to Eliot that Parker liked him, appreciated his good looks as well as his kindness to her. She turned to him in times of trouble, always had. Eliot never minded, never even thought too much about it until recently when the idea of him and Parker being closer than friends was raised amongst the team.

Bringing her head up off Eliot’s shoulder and meeting his eyes, there was no doubting what Parker was thinking about. Unfortunately, just as soon as the hitter registered the look in her eyes, Parker moved in closer and it was too late to argue with her. Her lips on his stuck Eliot to the spot a moment too long. He should’ve got away before it happened, but she was maybe the one person who had faster reactions than he did sometimes. The kiss lasted thirty seconds at most and then he pushed her away, hands firm but gentle at her shoulders.

Parker was stunned by her own actions as much as Eliot’s own. She hadn’t really planned to kiss him exactly. She had done it once before, but that was barely a peck on the lips and then she was gone. The only person on the team she was ever really close to in a physical way was Hardison, first as cover for cons and later when they dated. She had hugged Eliot and been held by him, but real serious kissing was new. She made her move because she wanted to, because she had this sudden panic in head that if she didn’t do it soon she might be too late. Life was short, stupidly so, they and both agreed on that. Jumping in with both feet felt like the most sensible idea in the world, and yet Eliot looked kinda mad.

“Parker, don’t” he told her definitely, a slight growl to his tone, the way it always happened when he got upset or annoyed with her.

“What?” she asked, as if she didn’t know. “I don’t wanna waste whatever time I have, Eliot. I can’t.”

“No, what we can’t do is this,” he said, gesturing between the two of them. “You know what it’d do to Hardison if we...” he frowned, knowing he wasn’t willing to elaborate on what could happen here if he let it. “Parker, we’re not doin’ this,” he said firmly as he got up from the bed and turned away.

It occurred to the both of them in the same moment that for all his denial, Eliot hadn’t actually said he didn’t want anything to happen between him and Parker, only that it shouldn’t or couldn’t. 

“Eliot...” she said, trying to come after him, but just as soon as her feet hit the ground, one leg gave way and Parker yelped with the pain.

On instinct Eliot turned and helped her back onto the bed. The shard of debris that jammed itself into her thigh had missed all the vital arteries and such, but she was going to be sore for a few days. This Eliot explained in muttered words as he got Parker comfortable again, ending up closer than he should be right now, with her arms around his neck. She shifted to push his hair back off his face and stared up at him with those beautiful wide eyes. Eliot hated himself when he leant down and kissed her lips, albeit so very briefly. He was disentangling his body from her grip a few seconds later and cursing himself for being such an idiot. 

“There’s somethin’ wrong with us,” he said, moving away, pushing his hair back with both hands together. “What the hell are we doin’, Parker?”

“Mostly kissing,” she answered simply, not meaning to be sarcastic or ironic even, just being Parker. “Why does it matter, Eliot?” she asked then. “I broke up with Hardison...”

“You think it’s as simple as that?” he asked, more angry and loud than she truly deserved.

This wasn’t really Parker’s fault. She didn’t get it, she never did. She saw it the simple way a child might. Hardison was out of the picture, she told him they were over, so now she could move on if she wanted to. It would hurt the hacker if she was kissing on anybody right now, but Eliot? There was no way around this and the hitter knew it. Hardison had accused him of stealing Parker away. He denied it and meant every word. Now it seemed awfully prophetic. Screw Hardison for being so damn smart and intuitive, Eliot thought, even as his insides knotted up with guilt and frustration.

“Parker, think about this,” he said in a much more even tone as he turned to look at her. “Hardison only thought something was going on with us and he went crazy,” he reminded her. “Now you want something to actually happen... The guy’ll lose his mind!”

Parker hated how complicated relationships were. It made her long for the days in the beginning when there was just her alone, no one to worry about, no one to care about her. She could do what she wanted and damn the consequences. Now it was awkward and weird all the time. Getting closer to Hardison, being more than friends, it had been her biggest mistake. She didn’t feel the same apprehension and fear about being with Eliot. That could work, it would work, she was sure, and yet he was telling her no.

“Eliot, I just...” she began but he cut her off with a look.

“Parker,” he said sharply, softening in a second as he stared at her. “Darlin’, please, just get some rest,” he advised her, gently as anything. “Get some sleep and forget what happened here, okay?” he told her, turning away then and heading for the door.

This time he made it out of the room, even though she did call his name behind him. Eliot hated all this, hated that Parker wanted him when he already wanted her so badly. It was wrong, inappropriate, ridiculous. Any relationship between them that was more than friends, it had the ability to shatter this team into shards. Hardison would never forgive Eliot, even if he could accept Parker’s own decision. Nate and Sophie would judge, and the whole thing would be blown apart. This family could not be torn asunder just because Parker decided she and Eliot ought to go a round together. Of course, the hitter wasn’t blind or stupid. He knew there would be way more to him and Parker than fantastic sex. That would sure be a part of it, and he wouldn’t deny he had thought about the possibilities before, but theirs would be a much deeper relationship than he'd had in years. He loved that girl, loved her like he didn't know he could love a woman, not since he was a kid and Aimee was the only one he could think about.

Parker was his friend and confidante. She was there when she was needed, and Eliot played the same role for her. They were each other’s person to turn to, to lean on. They had an understanding of each other and of themselves that nobody else got. Like that day inside the mountain when Eliot had explained to Parker they were different, that they were an ‘us’ for a lack of better term. Maybe if Hardison had gotten over his crush before, or Parker had never responded to it, then maybe it would’ve been okay. 

As it was, Eliot could not imagine how he and Parker were ever going to be together without causing the complete destruction of this team and family. Eyes closed a moment, he took a deep breath, shoved all those mixed up feelings away in a box for now and concentrated on what came next. A dead man, a grieving son, and a thirst for vengeance. There was a lot still to think about, life and death decisions that had to come first. Eliot wasn’t sure if he were more afraid of those, or of dealing with all things related to Parker. Somehow, he had a feeling the latter would be that much tougher.


	11. Chapter 11

“You sure you’re okay?” Hardison asked Parker for maybe the seventh time in as many minutes.

She was sat sideways on a stool by the team’s desk, her injured leg propped up on the next seat over. It didn’t hurt so much now, but Eliot insisted she keep it elevated as much as possible. She exercised the muscles, took a lighter dose of painkillers, and Parker was assured she would be back to normal and good as new in a couple more days.

Hardison was still worried about her. He loved the crazy woman after all, and that didn’t change just because they weren’t a couple any more. Being mad at her hadn’t worked from the start, even when she was dumping his ass. Hardison never could blame Parker for not wanting to be with him, he only blamed himself, and for a while he blamed Eliot too.

It was easy to think his two best friends were closer than just friends themselves. There was a bond between Eliot and Parker, almost from the start. Sure, he got mad at her for her crazy ways and such, but at the root of it all was affection. Parker was the first person Eliot taught self defence to. His opinion seemed to matter to her more than any other. They just got along, in a way that Hardison never had quite fathomed out. Now he didn’t want to think about it too much at all.

“I’m fine,” said Parker in response to the hacker’s repetitive questioning, even as she shifted in her seat a little and felt the wound in her leg pull.

Eliot had done a good job of fixing her up without the need for a doctor or a hospital. He had taken care of her, in the spare room at Nate’s place, whilst Sophie did her best to take care of Nate himself. Hardison hadn’t really been around and Parker had tried to take the opportunity to talk to Eliot about what was happening between the two of them, but the hitter snapped at her every time she did so. He wouldn’t speak about their kiss or any feelings she thought she was having. There was never a time before this when he had shut her out so completely. He tended to her wound and ask about her health, even assured her there was no need to be getting upset about what happened, but he wouldn’t be Eliot, at least that was how Parker saw it.

Hardison had noticed things were weird too. This connection he always knew existed between Eliot and Parker was now strained. He wondered if that was his fault, and as much as a part of him wanted to be glad, another larger part actually felt a little guilty. It wasn’t fair for Parker to lose two good friends at once. Not that she had lost Hardison himself as such, but naturally it was more difficult for him to be the same way with her as before they dated. If his actions had caused a rift between her and Eliot too, it just didn’t sit right with Hardison.

“Parker, y’know...” he began, only to have his words unceremoniously cut off when Nate and Sophie appeared.

The grifter was clearly trying to stop her man in whatever action he was trying to take, and failing miserably at it too. They rushed down from the mezzanine, one behind the other.

“Nate, you can’t go in there without a plan or back up!” she insisted. “You haven’t thought this through. If Dubenich really is behind it...”

“Dubenich?” checked Hardison with wide eyes. “We think Victor Dubenich escaped jail? That ain’t even...”

“Not escaped, but he’s behind what happened,” said Nate definitely, pointing a finger at Hardison. “He’s behind Latimer, I know it!”

“I... I can check on...” the hacker tried to say, but was once again prevented from speaking when Sophie cut in this time.

“Nate, even if we knew for sure that Dubenich was behind this, going after him in this way is suicide,” she said definitely.

“She’s right, man,” Eliot agreed as he appeared from the next room, having heard everything through thin walls. “We can come up with a plan, do this right. Blind vengeance never helped anybody.”

He spoke from experience, they were all aware of that. Moreover, they all knew Eliot was right. If Nate went after Dubenich alone and without thinking, there would be blood, maybe his own as well as their first mark. They needed to do this as a team.

“We all gotta work together, Nate,” said Hardison definitely. “Dubenich played us all.”

“Did he kill your father?!” Nate yelled at him angrily.

“Some of us didn’t have a father for him to kill,” said Parker in reply, shocking the whole room into silence with the flat tone in her voice. “Some of us never had a family until this team, and we won’t have one again if it falls apart.”

Sophie looked from Nate to Parker and back.

“Not some of us,” she said softly. “That’s true for every one of us now. Nate, please,” she urged him. “Let us help you. We need to work together like we always have. That’s the only way we can beat Latimer and Dubenich, you know it is!”

Nate looked around the room at each of his team. He knew they were right, he just didn’t want to admit it. They had become his family, and honourable people the like of which he never thought to find, especially not in the criminals and thieves he had seen when he first met them. That first job in Chicago seemed like a lifetime ago, and yet it was coming back to haunt them.

“Fine,” he said at last. “We do this together,” he conceded. “But you have to understand that I will not rest until I have justice for my Dad,” he said definitely.

“That goes for all of us,” said Eliot, sure in his statement before he ever caught Parker’s eye or saw Hardison nod his head.

Dubenich was their joint enemy. He had brought them together but there was no way in hell any member of this team was going to let him bury what he had created. Since being Victor’s team, they had become their own, and a family too. Eliot felt a pang of guilt as he glanced to Hardison. He was his brother in all but blood and what had started brewing between Eliot and Parker really wasn’t fair to the hacker. Right now all of that had to go on the back burner, but it was still there, bubbling away. After Dubenich was dealt with, there were going to have to be some serious conversations had about what happened next.

* * *

“You okay?” Eliot asked Parker as she winced a little climbing into the van.

“Yeah,” she replied, not quite convincingly, as Hardison floored it and took them far away from Latimer Diversified.

“Parker, c’mon,” he said with a sigh, taking out his earbud and gesturing for her to do the same. “I’m not the bad guy here.”

“And I am?” she asked in the same whispered tone he was using.

The speed they were going and with Hardison’s music blaring, he shouldn’t be able to hear their quiet conversation. Apparently there was no way to avoid having one anymore.

“Are you okay?” repeated Eliot too seriously.

Parker blew her bangs off her forehead and slumped back against the side of Lucille.

“My leg is fine, more or less,” she shrugged. “My head is all...” she added, swirling her hands around in some mixed-up gesture.

Eliot didn’t really know what he was supposed to say to that. He wanted to ask if Parker was okay, and he was glad to hear she wasn’t hurting too bad physically. If her mind was a mess, well, that was no worse than Eliot’s own head-space right about now. To think they had gone through four years of working together, becoming team-mates and then friends like family. It was never supposed to go this way. Eliot was never supposed to realise that he loved Parker just a little too much, especially not now. Not on the heels of her break-up with Hardison. Not when they were headed back to the beginning, taking down Victor Dubenich again.

“Eliot?” Parker prodded him in her arm. “I... I’m sorry if I made everything complicated.”

She did look sorry when he glanced over at her, sad and sorry. Eliot hated that. He never wanted her to look so lost. He was here to make sure it didn’t happen. The first time he saw her cry, he offered to kill a guy just to make it better. Parker was too special for tears and pain, just way too special.

“Darlin’, I’m sorry too,” he sighed, moving to sit close beside her. “Wasn’t supposed to go this way, was it?”

“Nope,” she shook her head sadly. “I keep thinking back, way back to the beginning, when we first met,” she smiled then, a nostalgic wistful kind of a look, but at least it was a happy one. “All the stories I’d heard about the famous Eliot Spencer... You were nothing like I thought.”

Eliot opened his mouth to ask her to explain exactly what she meant but then thought better of it. His reputation before Leverage had been legendary, and none of it really any good. Of course, he wasn’t what Parker expected, because he had made a change on purpose. Sure, he was still a thief when they met, but he wasn’t the evil being the world had known before. The darkness that had tried to overcome him was being slowly pushed away, so very slowly. It was the team that made the real difference, but he had started down the lighter path before they ever met. The man Parker met that day in Chicago was not the guy his reputation described, and he thanked God for it.

“I’m glad you never met me before,” he told her then. “If you had, you sure wouldn’t have the same feelings you do now.”

He glanced at her sideways out of the corner of his eye and then looked away. Eliot hated talking about himself like this in front of her, but it was necessary. If anything was going to help Parker understand how undeserving he was of her affection, it was telling her what he used to be.

“I don’t think that’s true,” she said softly, getting his attention in a second, just purely out of shock. “The person I am now isn’t how I was before either. I was worse than you know, maybe not in the same way as you, but I was,” she admitted. “We’re all broken, Eliot, except with you, I just... I feel like I’m not so much.”

Eliot wanted to kiss her. He gave the idea some very serious consideration when their eyes met and her lips were so close and inviting. The man that was usually so aware of his surroundings, so determined to be in control, and yet he had quite forgotten Hardison, the job, Dubenich, Jimmy Ford. Everything was gone except for Parker who was so close, so beautiful, so...

A tight corner that Hardison took too fast made Lucille lurch violently, tyres squealing as the van suddenly righted again.

“Sorry, guys!” the hacker called from the front.

“Damnit, Hardison!” Eliot yelled back, even as he did his level best not to fall on top of Parker.

His friend was still apologising and making excuses from the driver’s seat as Parker looked up into Eliot’s eyes and they both allowed themselves to get lost another moment. If this job wasn’t the death of the two of them, both hitter and thief were pretty sure their feelings for each other would be.

This was not good!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry for the slight delay in getting this next chapter posted - my head is not entirely in the Leverage game right now, but I'm doing my best. Shout out to Kitty_Nebula, because she's awesome ;)

What Nate suggested made perfect sense. If Dubenich, and by association Latimer, could see their team coming from years of experience, they had to get in people who worked differently. Parker’s choice was easy and Eliot knew from the immediate grin on her face that she was going after Archie. Though the old man taught Parker much of what she knew, the hitter couldn’t quite forgive the old devil for letting the master thief be little more than her profession. He didn’t give her the love and family she needed, that had been something she lacked until finally the team came along and gathered around her. Still, Eliot didn’t say a word. The only option he had for a person to call on was even less thrilling to him than Archie Leach.

“Of all the professionals in the world, and you must know a lot, you came to find me. Why?” asked Quinn curiously.

Eliot looked everywhere but at his fellow hitter. There were few people in his league, able to be on the same level as the great Eliot Spencer, or even bordering on better.

Quinn was one of the few. He had beaten Eliot down with a little too much ease the first time they met, and though he had gotten the upper hand in the end, it had been one of the toughest fights of Eliot’s life. Plus, for the right price, Quinn could always be bought. He had a reputation, as all their kind did, and mostly his revolved around liking the finer things in life. Dollars bought loyalty from a guy like Quinn, that was all Eliot needed right now.

“I had maybe two choices for this gig,” Eliot shrugged like it was nothing. “You were the less complicated option, okay?”

“Really?” Quinn smirked annoyingly then turned to look out of the plane window. “You’d rather face a guy who beat you down and beg a favour than go to someone who you actually get along with?”

Eliot bit his lip a moment, then forced a deep breath through his lungs. He was already wishing he had picked a different person to help out on this con. Mikhail Dayan, she would’ve showed up if he asked, and she could be bought for the right price too. Unfortunately, she would be one more woman in a situation he already couldn’t untangle. Parker was a problem, a sweet adorable problem that he had somehow come to be in love with. An ex that he had hot sex with in a boiler room was the last thing this situation needed!

“Who is she?” asked Quinn when his ‘friend’ was silent too long.

He was too smart and that was going to bug Eliot. Quinn wasn’t hired to be smart, and yet it was there, that quick thinking ability that Eliot had himself, even though he usually down-played it. It worked to the advantage of guys like them to appear to be just dumb muscle. The truth was quite the opposite in most cases.

“Who’s who, man?” asked Eliot, feigning innocence. “I don’t even...”

Quinn shook his head and tutted as if he were disappointed in a child.

“Y’know you’d think that after all these years, you’d be a better liar,” he smirked, inclining his head and holding Eliot’s gaze until the other guy cracked.

“It’s not that simple,” he said with a growl. “She’s on my team, and she was dating another guy on the same team ‘til a couple of week ago,” he explained, more angry at the situation he was explaining than the guy who was making him spill it.

“Ooh, and you’ve got it bad,” said Quinn the smirk gone in a second as he realised how serious this was.

Guys like Eliot, himself, so many others in their line of work, they didn’t have connections. Lovers were for one night stands, maybe a weekend, a little longer if your partner was in the same game as you, but that was all. There was no marriage and kids, a rose covered home with a white picket fence. People like them didn’t have happy ever afters, they didn’t even get a brief semblance of that most of the time. Now Eliot Spencer had done what ought to be impossible for a man as hardened by life and the world as he was - he’d fallen in love.

“This is what comes with having a permanent team, huh?” Quinn shook his head. “Makes me glad I never went down that road.”

Eliot couldn’t help but agree with that. He kind of wished he’d never started on this road either, and yet the one he had been travelling before the team would have led to his ultimate destruction. Team Leverage had saved Eliot Spencer, whether they knew it or not, and yet Parker, who mattered to him more than anyone in the world right now, seemed set to be his undoing.

“I don’t know why I let this chick get under my skin,” he sighed, running a hand over his face. “There’s no good choices, and no way outta this.”

“Seems to me the easiest way is to literally get out,” said Quinn with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “You’re not tied to this team forever, right? We do this job, I walk, you walk too. Problem solved.”

Eliot knew he had a point. Sure, it would hurt him and Parker if he left like that, but it would solve one problem - she couldn’t love him anymore after that. Hardison wouldn’t have to be hurt and the team could go on without him. There were other hitters, as evidenced by the guy sat next to him now. They could cope somehow.

There was some serious thought to be given to the theory, Eliot knew that much, but now really wasn’t the time. They’d be landing within ten minutes and then head to the new location Nate had found for them. There was a job to do, two assholes to bring down, and a death to avenge. Everything else would have to wait until later - if someone could just tell Eliot’s over-active brain that, it’d all be fine.

* * *

“Parker, there’s something you’re not telling me,” said Archie as he drove them to their mysterious destination.

His passenger shifted in her seat, paying rapt attention to the directions that Hardison had sent to her phone. They had to get to the team’s new hide-out, meet up with the others, figure out how they were going to bring down Latimer and Dubenich.

“I can’t think of anything,” she shrugged, a complete lie and they both knew it. 

Sure, she had told Archie everything about the team’s situation, about Nate’s father being killed, and who was behind it. He had the most up-to-date info on all of this as anyone did. They knew Latimer had got Dubenich out of jail already, and that was why they had to burn their previous identities and old office in Boston. That was the first place old Victor would go looking, with plans to take them out just like he had Jimmy Ford. Yep, Archie knew everything, expect for one or two more personal things...

“Parker...” he said, his tone just like it had always been when he wanted the whole truth - or his wallet back when his protege sneaked a lift.

“The team is different than when you last saw us,” she admitted all in a rush. “I dated Hardison, and then I broke up with him.”

“Okay,” Archie nodded once, eyes fixed to the road.

He concentrated all the more on his driving as Parker advised a left turn then straight ahead another mile, before taking the next right.

“Alec Hardison, he’s the computer genius,” said Archie thoughtfully. “I could tell how much he liked you when we pulled that job against the Steranko,” he admitted. “Of course, I also noted how much your friend Eliot Spencer cared too.”

Archie glanced Parker’s way and noticed the merest flicker of her eyes, even as she continued to stare at the map display on her phone. Archie was no-one’s fool. Though he had aged significantly since his hey day, he was sharp as a tack in the brain, even as his body began to give way. Parker was one he knew better than most, closer perhaps than if she had really been his daughter. There was nothing she could hide from him that he wouldn’t eventually figure out, and she ought to realise it.

“I didn’t mean to make a mess of everything,” said Parker awkwardly, still looking only at her phone and never at Archie. “It was always easier before I got all these.. feelings,” she said, making a vague gesture in front of her chest where her aching heart lived.

With a sigh, Archie looked up ahead, and spotted a safe place to pull the car over into a side road. Shutting off the engine, he turned in the driver’s seat to fix Parker with a serious but sympathetic sort of a look.

“Archie, we have to go,” she told him, glancing up. “We have to...”

“Never mind that, Parker,” he said, batting away the hand that waved her phone in his face. “I know I haven’t always played the father role exactly as I should have, but I would hope when something is happening in your life, something you’re having trouble dealing with...”

“What’s it like to be in love?” she asked out of the blue, cutting him off immediately.

Archie hadn’t a notion where to begin. He had been in love, he still very much was, with a wife that knew everything about him save for his criminal career. These last few years since all but giving up his old ways, he and dear Maria had grown that much closer. He could tell her all that he did with his days, and spend so many with her and with his family. Yes, he knew love, but to explain it to Parker would be impossible.

“Parker, nobody can ever tell you such a thing,” he told her with a sigh. “Every person feels differently. I suspect if you believe yourself to be in love with Spencer, then you probably are.”

“I didn’t mention Eliot,” she twitched as if something bit her. “You brought him up, I didn’t,” she added, pulling her feet up onto the passenger seat.

Archie immediately knocked her dirty shoes off his upholstery.

“Well, we have established that you dated Hardison and it didn’t work out as planned,” he noted with a look. “Since Nathan Ford was always trying hard to take my place in your life, that only leaves one, and as I said, his affection for you was clear enough to see,” he smiled at the memory from more than two years ago now. “You know, when he realised it was my fault you were trapped in that building, I actually believe he planned to kill me.”

“Eliot wouldn’t do that,” Parker rolled her eyes. “I mean, he could, but he wouldn’t, not unless I wanted him to, and I never, ever would,” she said vehemently, shaking her head in the negative for good measure.

Archie tried not to smile too much. Yes, Spencer would kill for Parker, and he would die for her too. For the first time in her life his little protege might just have found the person she was willing to give her all for too, but there was a complication. The hacker loved her as well, and that hadn’t worked out on Parker’s side. Now Archie understood the root of the problem.

“Of all the advice I can give to you, all the things I can teach,” he told Parker, even as his eyes remained focused out through the windshield. “Here is the most important think I shall ever impart...”

At that Parker sat up properly and gave Archie her full attention, waiting for the very important advice. His head turned slowly until he faced her again, and though he smiled she knew he was very serious about what he was about to say.

“When you find love, grab it with both hands, and hold on tighter than if it were the largest diamond, the greatest treasure you ever thought to imagine,” he said definitely.

“Love, true love, comes along perhaps once in a lifetime. You cannot afford to let it get away.”

Parker only realised when he had finished speaking that she hadn’t taken a breath the whole time. Now, as Archie put all his focus back into starting the car and resuming their journey, Parker sucked in oxygen and replayed his words in her head. He was right of course, Archie usually was. She only remembered arguing with him once and knowing she was correct to do so - the day she and the team got justice at Wakefield Agricultural. It was the one and only time he had been wrong, and that was only because he didn’t understand how Parker had changed, how the team had changed her. She did trust that he understood love though, that he was right about it being a precious gift. This recent con was important, maybe their most important yet, and Parker would not lose sight of that, but through it all she would remember what Archie had told her, and how it felt when she kissed Eliot and he kissed back. She loved him, she knew that now more than ever, and he probably loved her too. Parker had it in her head to find out and make this whole thing work out somehow.

By the time they reached their destination, the apparent cave that was to be the enlarged groups base of operations, Parker had a look of determination on her face that Archie wouldn’t question. They headed inside and she strolled straight on up to Eliot, interrupting his conversation with Quinn without a care.

“We’re not done yet,” she told him sharply. “We have a job to do, but I’m holding on and I’m not letting go.”

Eliot watched her walk away again, fighting the urge to pull out that old familiar phrase about there being something wrong with her. It was only when he heard Quinn saying something about hating to see Parker go but loving to watch her leave that he snapped out of a daze and give his ‘friend’ a shove.

“You watch your mouth,” he warned his fellow hitter before walking away in the opposite direction to Parker.

Quinn only smirked. Apparently, this job was going to be much more interesting than he thought.


	13. Chapter 13

“You know what they’re talking about, right?” said Hardison, looking sideways at Eliot.

He didn’t have to ask who the hacker was talking about, it was already clear. Nate had disappeared a few minutes ago then Sophie followed. It was perfectly obvious why.

“You think she can talk him out of it?” asked Eliot.

He would like to believe that Nate wouldn’t walk a path he had once taken himself, but these were crazy circumstances. Victor Dubenich was the man that brought this team together, the one who first screwed them over too. Most importantly, he was the one who led to the demise of Nate’s father. Eliot had killed a man for less, but he didn’t want to see his friend do the same. He really hoped Sophie could talk a good enough game this time around. Truth was, Eliot wasn’t sure if she could, and the look on Hardison’s face suggested he didn’t know either.

Of course, it could just be that the hacker was already regretting starting a conversation with his so-called friend. Eliot was well aware things were still not right between the two of them, and he knew why. As if it wasn’t bad enough when Hardison was accusing his bro and his ex-girlfriend of having an affair when it wasn’t true. At this point, well, they still hadn’t really done much of anything, and Parker wasn’t even dating Hardison anymore, but Eliot knew the rules. Dating your best friend’s ex, it just wasn’t done, even if you did find yourself falling in love. Now certainly wasn’t the time to be trying to figure out such things, but it seemed he wasn’t going to get a choice in the matter.

“Hey, are we cool, man?” Eliot checked, glancing at Parker across the cave, in deep conversation with Archie now. “I mean, we gotta be a team on this, all of us together.”

“You think I’m not bein’ part of the team?” asked Hardison, stopping with the untangling of his electronics to stare at his friend. “Hey, I’m getting along with Chaos for this! I can sure as hell get along with you, brah!”

Eliot smiled slightly at that, nodded once to prove he heard and understood him. He used that word a lot. Brah and bro, all meaning brother. They were like brothers, him and Hardison, they drove each other crazy but deep down they always loved each other, even if they never used the words at all. Eliot dating Parker was going to break that relationship, it was what the hitter was trying to avoid. It was why he kept on telling Parker that they couldn’t happen. Of course, she was as stubborn and determined as he was, and the way she walked in today and told him they were getting together whether he liked it or not, well, Eliot knew he could only fight her off so long. Yes, he wanted her, and he loved her, on levels that he doubted he could ever explain. This was what it felt like to be caught between a rock and a hard place, he reckoned, and though for once it wasn’t the literal kind, it seemed it was going to hurt all the more somehow.

“So, this is gonna work,” said Eliot, half-statement, half-question as he hefted a bag of ice and shells.

“It surely will,” Hardison grinned, very proud of the plan he had helped put together to bring the Bellington Dam to its knees. “See once these little critters get into the system, they have to shut it down. No way to get ‘em out, and its a violation to flush them into the water system.”

Eliot nodded along with that. It made sense, though it was strange to think such a little thing could mess up such big plans. The hitter caught his eyes wandering to Parker at the very thought. Yeah, she was just a little thing too, but she was messing with his head, whether she meant to or not.

“’Course, this whole plan depends on some folks I don’t necessarily trust,” said Hardison then, eyes trained first on Chaos and then more so on Quinn.

The other hacker was hammering away at his keyboard though his eyes did keep on wandering to Parker’s lithe form, whilst the alternate hitter was stripped down to a vest, performing an impressive amount of chin ups on a scaffold type structure in the far corner.

“Hey, we have to trust ‘em,” said Eliot definitely. “I know it ain’t easy, but for the money they’re bein’ paid, they’ll do as they’re told,” he told Hardison. “Besides, I promised Quinn a favour, that’s enough to hold his attention even if the money doesn’t.”

“Yeah, I had to do the same with Chaos,” the hacker rolled his eyes.

He opened his mouth to continue but then closed it without. Chaos was interested in Parker, and whilst he knew the little thief wouldn’t give him the time of day, Hardison still bristled at the idea of Colin Mason trying his chances. Chances were good Parker would tase him, or maybe Archie would beat him down with his cane. Still, this wasn’t a conversation Hardison much wanted to have with Eliot right now. It was still too awkward.

Eliot and Parker had been talking in the back of the van after they hit Latimer’s place. Hardison knew, but he couldn’t tell what they were saying. Honestly, he’d tried to block it out, just hoping they were patching things up as friends and nothing more. He was the one to throw the wrench in whatever relationship they had before, and Hardison was not proud of that. His paranoia still wouldn’t quit, he continued to wonder if there was more there between hitter and thief than they would admit, but he tried to squash those feelings down. They all had a job to do here, a very serious one. All the internal workings of the team would have to wait until Jimmy Ford was avenged, however long that took.

* * *

“I like this,” Parker smiled, standing back from the fake cake that she and Archie had carefully constructed.

“Well, you always did have a soft spot for anything with sugar,” her mentor sighed as if exasperated by the very fact of it.

“No, not the icing!” she rolled her eyes, bumping his arm because she was pretty sure he knew that already and was teasing her. “I like working like this, with you. I missed you,” she admitted shyly.

Parker wasn’t usually like this, all girly and sweet in this particular way. Well, Archie thought, she never had been like this, but things had obviously changed. A few years ago when she was his protegee and nothing more, Parker didn’t have feelings, emotions, or needs. She lived for the heist, the beauty of the con, and that was all. Now she had friends and family, they had taught her to be well-rounded and fully formed. Parker was her own person, the person Archie knew he should’ve helped her become himself. Ford had been right about that, as Spencer had been right to look at Archie as if he wanted to punish him for his behaviour. That was what he deserved. What Parker deserved was her own happy ending, something she feared going after at first.

“Missed you too, kiddo,” Archie admitted after a silence that had gone on too long. “But you don’t need me anymore, not usually,” he smiled down at her. “You have your own family here, your own happiness if you want it.”

Parker nodded along to his words, agreeing that he was right. She was quite determined that she and Eliot had to at least try being closer and see what happened. Sure, it had ended pretty messy with Hardison, but truth be told, she never felt this way about her hacker friend. Kissing him was nice, spending time was fun, but with Eliot it was different. The making out was exciting and safe at the same time, like stealing a diamond and knowing she could never be caught. Nothing ever felt like that before, never. Besides, Eliot seemed to understand her, even when he was calling her crazy or saying there was something wrong with her. Despite all that, he had taught her self-defence, patched her up when she was hurt. He took care of her when she was sick, and was usually the first one to laugh at her jokes. They just fit, they made sense, and life without Eliot would completely suck for Parker. It wouldn’t be great without Hardison either, or Sophie, or Nate, but somehow it just felt different. Maybe life would be  
easier if she could explain it. Unfortunately, Parker really couldn’t.

Looking at the empty open space of the cave hide-out, Parker made a snap decision and threw herself into it. She kicked, flipped, and spun her way across the floor, until she literally hit an obstacle in her path. Parker came upright and found herself in the arms of completely the wrong hitter.

“Well, aren’t you more forward than I thought?” Quinn smirked at her.

His hands were summarily knocked from her body and Parker backed up a step, frowning hard. She didn’t really know what to make of Quinn. She would like to trust him on the strength of Eliot’s judgement, but it didn’t come easy. This was a man that had once played for the other side, for Sterling no less. He had beaten Eliot into submission, broken ribs and cracked teeth, Parker recalled. Now they were on the same team, some kind of healthy hitter respect existing between Quinn and Eliot. She continued to frown as she thought it over.

“People don’t touch me,” she shook her head definitely. “Not unless they like to get stabbed.”

She said it in some low and hopefully scary voice. Honestly, Parker was channelling Eliot’s own threatening tone as best she could. She wasn’t sure it came out right when Quinn failed to quake in his boots. He was still smiling at her.

“I heard that,” he nodded once, very deliberately putting his arms behind his back, hands clasped. “Of course, I also heard that the stabbing is dependant on who’s doing the touching,” he smirked dangerously as he took a step forward and Parker instictively leaned back away from him. “I guess I’m just the wrong man for the job,” he said softly in her ear.

Parker shuddered and continued to feel shaky long after Quinn had gone away from her personal space. He knew. Eliot must’ve talked to him about what was happening between them. Maybe it made sense, with Quinn being outside of their ‘family. Sure, he was on their team right now but... Parker started when her brain suddenly connected the dots. She smiled widely at her realisation. Eliot was thinking about her and what they’d done, the potential of something more happening between them. That was enough for her for now, she thought, checking her path was clear and going for another set of impressive flips and turns. Nobody got in her way this time.

* * *

“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea having you in on this job,” said Sophie smoothly as she walked by Archie. “But you were very impressive in playing your part,” she smiled.

“Thank you, my dear,” the old gentlemen smiled, grabbing Sophie’s hand as she tried to slip by and kissing her knuckles with a wink.

The grifter giggled like a school girl and crossed the room with a sashay in her step. Eliot chuckled and shook his head. He hoped he had that kind of nerve when he was as old as Archie. He felt like telling the old guy so but resisted the urge. It was better not to socialise with the so-called gentleman thief.

“You are quite the conundrum, young man,” said Archie then, apparently unaware of Eliot’s deliberate attempt not to make small-talk here. “Your reputation, which most definitely proceeds you, is of a cold-blooded killer, and yet...”

“And yet?” the hitter prompted, meeting Archie’s eyes and putting on his best rattlesnake smile - the old guy never flinched.

“You don’t fool me, Spencer,” he smirked right back at him. “I have no doubt you were the monster from campfire tales once upon a time, but this team has changed you, just as it changed my Parker,” he said definitely.

“Everybody changes, little pieces here and there,” said Eliot, lips twitching with so much he wanted to say but couldn’t find the words. “I... I cant ever be the kind of man she deserves. I’ll always be that monster, deep inside.”

“And you don’t think some sort of wild animal isn’t living inside of Parker too?” asked Archie with a significant look, his voice lowering as he stepped in closer to Eliot. “When I found her, she was emotionless, practically feral. I’m sure she never deliberately hurt anybody, she was never that girl, but make no mistake, Parker was a broken soul, barely a person. Perhaps that’s why the two of you have made such a connection.”

Eliot didn’t quite know what to make of what he was being told. Sure, he knew a little of what Parker had been like before. When she first joined the team, she was a little unhinged, for lack of a better term. Since they all started working together, she became more ‘normal’ but not so much that she stopped being her. Parker was still Parker, and though he had buried the monster deep and tried to find himself again, Eliot was still Eliot too. They were new versions of the same two people they had been before, and they had learnt to be these new people together.

“Don’t make the mistake I did, son,” said Archie, patting Eliot on the shoulder even as the hitter’s eyes remained fixed on Parker across the room. “Don’t let anything or anyone matter more than she does.”

Parker turned her head, clearly feeling eyes on her. She met Eliot’s gaze and was a little surprised to see him smiling at her in a strange soft way. Still she returned the look a moment before turning away again. Maybe things were going better than she thought. She hadn’t an idea that Hardison had seen the look that passed between his two friends, or that he had been listening in on the talk Eliot and Archie had either. The old man wasn’t entirely au fait with the earbud technology yet and left the damn thing in his ear and switched on. Oh yeah, Hardison heard every word, he just didn’t know what to make of it right now


	14. Chapter 14

Eliot came across Nate taking pot shots at whiskey glasses - he missed every one. Nerves would do that to a person, and everyone should be so rattled when it came to taking another person’s life. This was a conversation Eliot didn’t much want to be having, but Sophie’s begging and pleading had yet to deter Nate from his mission. She hadn’t out-right asked Eliot to take his turn, but they both knew he was maybe the only person here who could get through to their friend right now.

“You know what happens when you kill a man?” he asked Nate, without preamble or judgement. “Two men die. The man you kill, and the man you used to be.”

Such was the start of what had to be, by definition, a very intense conversation. Nate was hurting, more than most people could ever understand. Eliot understood that. He was capable of terrible things, and he knew he’d be looking for some serious vengeance if anyone took the life of someone he held dear. The people he loved, his family, they weren’t blood like Jimmy was to Nate, but they mattered just as much.

“You wouldn’t do this?” the mastermind asked with a slight edge to his voice. “For this team? For Sophie or Hardison? For Parker?”

The last two words felt like Nate had turned the gun on Eliot’s heart. For Parker. What he wouldn’t do for that woman. They both knew the hitter had sat in Nate’s apartment two years ago and declared he would kill the psychic that broke Parker’s heart. Dalton had done much less than Latimer and Dubenich, and yet... It was hypocritical of Eliot to stand here like this and tell Nate not to take a man’s life, but he wasn’t doing it for the sake of those who might physically die, he was doing it for his friend’s own good.

“What do you want to see when you look in the mirror?” he asked Nate then. “Because trust me, you do this, and it wont be Nathan Ford anymore. It’ll be some other guy, with blood on his hands and way too much on his mind,” Eliot explained too quietly, hardly able to meet Nate’s eyes. “I don’t want to see what happened to me, happen to you.”

He had given Nate a lot to think about and that was the point. He meant what he said about it killing the guy holding the gun as much as it kills the guy hit by the bullet. Until this team, Eliot had been such a mess because of the things he had done. These people had saved him, and it was why above all else he would save all of them - to his dying day.

“Hey,” said Parker when Eliot stepped out of the entrance to the side room in the cave.

“What are you...?” he stopped short of asking exactly why she was there when he realised there were tear tracks on her face.

Eliot glanced back over his shoulder then at Parker again. She had been eavesdropping and he should be mad about that. In a way, he definitely was. At the same time, maybe it would do her some good to hear about the kind of man he really was. As much as Eliot loved Parker, she couldn’t really love him. She didn’t know him, not really, despite being the one person in the team to have heard the most stories and spent the most time. She hadn’t met him until he was trying to be at least a little reformed, she couldn’t know what she was really dealing with.

“I didn’t mean to listen in,” she said, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “I... I was worried about Nate and you and... and I can’t help that I care about you,” she said the last part all in a rush and Eliot winced at the sound.

It wasn’t that her caring about him was so horrible, it was only that he could never deserve her. Archie tried to tell it like Parker was as bad as him, but Eliot knew better. She wasn’t a killer. If Parker hurt anybody it was an accident or because she absolutely had to in order to get away. Eliot let out a long sigh as he looked at her. Sweet, crazy little Parker. As if this job wasn’t hard enough already.

“Everything’s fine, sweetheart,” he told her, hoping it was the truth, but unable to know where Nate’s mind would go from here.

Eliot reached out a hand behind Parker’s head, pulled her closer and kissed her forehead, before he walked away. She stood still and watched him go, one hand drifting to the spot where his lips had been. Parker didn’t know what to make of what just happened, and she wasn’t the only one.

From across the room, the two hackers of the expanded team had seen everything.

“Oooh, you lost a girl to Eliot Spencer,” Chaos chuckled, socking Hardison in the shoulder. “Tough break, man, seriously.”

“Hey, I didn’t lose her to him, I just....” Hardison tried to argue but found it hard. “I was never what she wanted,” he muttered even as Chaos got up and walked away, leaving Hardison to talk to himself. “It was always him.”

* * *

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Maggie asked Eliot when he continued to pace and look far more agitated than she had ever seen him.

The hitter was the epitome of cool every other time they had met. Sure, she saw through his Dr Sinclair persona in the beginning, but that wasn’t his fault, that was all down to Nate being sloppy. Eliot was always so calm, so suave, and he usually paid particular attention to Maggie. Whilst she wasn’t expecting him to be full on flirty at such a time as this, he just didn’t seem right at all.

“I’m fine,” he snapped, immediately realising what he’d done when he saw her flinch. “I’m sorry, Maggie,” he apologised the very next second. “I am. This ain’t your fault, okay?”

“Well, I know its not my fault, but somebody is clearly putting you on edge,” she commented, glancing at Quinn.

“Hey, don’t look at me,” the alternate hitter held his hands up in mock surrender. “I’m not the one in the tight black outfit that can pick a lock faster than most people can sneeze,” he said succinctly.

Quinn took a deliberate step back when Eliot both glared and growled at him. It was that much harder to keep the smirk off his face, however, knowing he had just poked the bear and found the reaction amusing.

“Parker?” said Maggie, looking between the two and putting it all together suddenly. “You two are finally dating?” she asked Eliot with a smile.

It reminded Eliot too much of Nate when he was being a smart ass.

“Okay, why does everybody seem to think that me and Parker are supposed to be dating?” he asked crossly, though they were all aware he was denying nothing. “We’re friends, that’s it.”

“Oh come on, Eliot!” Maggie rolled her eyes. “The first day I met the team, I could tell you and Hardison both had a crush on Parker. Of course, all her affection seemed to be in your direction, so imagine my surprise when I heard from Sophie that she and Alec were the ones dating,” she explained. “Their break up made so much more sense to me, even if it had to be hard on him, and perhaps her too. Parker’s such a good soul deep down…”

“Then why would you think it was a good idea that she get close to me?” Eliot asked Maggie straight out.

She’d like to know whether it was supposed to be a trick question or not. Eliot probably meant it as one, a rhetorical question at best, and yet there was something in his eyes. He meant it. He wanted an explanation as to how he could ever be good enough for a woman that clearly adored him. Maggie knew that look, because she’d seen Nate wear it too.

“Eliot, don’t be so hard on yourself,” she said gently, picking up both his hands between hers. “And please, don’t let go of somebody so special just because you think you’re not worthy. If she’s willing to give you her heart - Parker, of all people, who is so reluctant to get close - then please, don’t push her away.”

Quinn watched the whole exchange from his spot leaning back against the wall. He managed to have half an ear on what Ford’s ex wife was saying and half on the conversation through his earbud. Dubenich would be out any second.

“I hate to break up an adorable moment…” he said, pushing off the wall and walking over. “They’re on their way out.”

“That’s my cue,” Maggie sighed, straightening her dress and painting on a smile as she began to sashay around to the other door into the bar. “Remember what I said Eliot!” she called over her shoulder, and then she was gone.

“C’mon,” he growled at Quinn, when he noticed him grinning.

They got into position and waited for Sophie to emerge, alongside Dubenich and his goons.

Now was not a good time for so many thoughts to be in Eliot’s head. He needed to concentrate on the job at hand. The only advantage to his frustration was the force of his anger coming through full force when he bodily tackled the guy in his path.. The flunkies were taken care of in seconds between himself and Quinn, and then suddenly Dubenich was at barrels end.

Eliot thought about it. He really, seriously considered taking this guy out. It’d save Nate getting blood on his hands, and there was already more on Eliot’s own than he could atone for in his lifetime. One more couldn’t make any difference, and this asshole had it coming.

“Eliot, no!” said Sophie definitely. “Think about what you’re doing. Think about the man you are now, not what you used to be,” she urged him.

The man he had been back then wasn’t a man at all, just a monster, Eliot knew that. It was Parker he could never get to see it, that one thought set off a chain reaction in his mind and all at once he was lowering the gun. He couldn’t shoot Dubenich, he didn’t want to be that guy anymore. Though Victor would deserve it after all he had done, not least for allowing Jimmy Ford to die without mercy, Eliot was not going to be judge, jury, and executioner, not this time.

* * *

Parker was worried about this job. She was concerned that Nate was going to go too far and actually kill Dubenich, Latimer, or both. She was worried about the alternates everybody had bought in, not least because Chaos and Quinn both seemed to like staring at her a not-small part of the time. Most of all she was worried about Eliot. This whole thing between them might’ve been that much easier to deal with if it hadn’t started in the middle of some of their biggest cons, this latest one in particular. Hardison was always going to be a hurdle in their path, but all this stuff with Latimer and Dubenich was like trying to jump over a fifty storey building. Off one, she could happily do, but over was a whole other ballgame, especially when that building was a metaphor. Parker never did fully understand the point of metaphors…

“Hey!” she called when she saw Eliot coming towards her with a purpose.

She was smiling when she first realised he was back, about to ask how everything went. Parker changed her mind when she noticed the intense look in Eliot’s eyes and the way he was coming at her like a man possessed. She wasn’t afraid, he never did scare her, no matter how angry he got, but he certainly got her full attention.

“Come with me,” he said, reaching for her hand which she eagerly gave him.

Eliot pulled Parker around the corner into a section of the cave where they couldn’t be seen or heard by the others. Quinn was the only one that ought to have seen the going of them and hopefully nobody would come looking for a while. They had their own jobs to do right now anyway.

“Eliot, what’s going…?” Parker began, but never quite finished her question as Eliot suddenly stopped walking and pulled on her hand.

Parker collided with Eliot’s chest muscles and then his lips were on hers, his arms around her, holding her close. There was no way Parker was missing this chance, even if it had come so very unexpectedly. She grabbed onto Eliot and kissed him back with a force and passion she’d never felt for anyone else but him. All too soon he was pulling away, holding her by her shoulders an arms length away. It took them both a second to get their breath back.

“I don’t know how this is gonna work,” he said eventually. “You and me... it’s gonna be messy, for everybody, and I’m not... I never thought this would happen.”

“Me either,” Parker said just a little absently, her mind still whirling from the very hot kissing.

“Okay, so if we’re gonna do this, I want you to know what you’re dealing with before anything happens,” he said definitely. “I was out there today, and when things got tough, when I had to make a choice, it wasn’t just about whether I could live with myself. It was about what Parker would think of me,” he admitted, thinking of that moment when the gun was in his hand, pointed very definitely in Dubenich’s face. “You gotta understand what I am, Parker.”

“I know what you are; you’re Eliot,” she rolled her eyes and almost laughed at what she thought was a dumb thing for him to say.

Eliot’s gaze never shifted. He was serious. So serious that she wanted to cry. Parker wasn’t stupid, she knew Eliot was a bad guy once upon a time. He wasn’t that man anymore though, she knew that too, and for Parker that was much more important. For Eliot it seemed that what he was once was equally as important as what he had become now.

“You know I worked for Moreau, and the worst thing I ever did was in his name, under his orders,” said Eliot softly. “That day in the park when you asked me exactly what I did, I... I didn’t want you to have to hear that, not ever, but if you and me are going to go the whole way with this thing, whatever this is,” he said gesturing vaguely between them, “then you’re gonna have to know everything. If you still think you want to be with me after that then, well, we’ll see what happens. If you can’t, then I’ll walk. Okay?”

He searched her eyes for any sign of fear or panic, for any hint that she might turn and bolt the very next second. Parker didn’t like knowing she was about to hear his worst horror stories, but at the same time, Eliot was oddly proud to realise she was willing to do so anyway.

“Okay,” she nodded, even as her voice cracked under the pressure of emotion. “Tell me.”

Eliot led her further back into the cave and they sat down together on a flat rock formation. Both he and Parker seemed to take a deep breath at the same moment, and then he began his tale.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is where we wrap this story up! Thank you to my readers & commenters. I enjoyed writing this story, and I hope in the future I will write many more E/P adventures... in a little while, when my muses tire of new fandoms and head back to this one. Peace out!

“Parker?”

Eliot prompted her to speak when he was done telling her the very worst of what he had done in his life. Work for Moreau, jobs he had to taken out of necessity more than a want to do so, situations he couldn’t get out of without committing the worst of crimes. He told her everything, well, everything he felt she had to know if they were going to get any closer. It would be wrong going into some kind of romantic relationship with her only knowing half the story of what he was, what he had been. Now it had all been said.

Throughout, she had been quiet and still, to the point where Eliot almost felt the need to check she was still breathing a couple of times. The silent tears rolling down Parker’s cheeks damn near broke his heart, but he continued on, because he had to.

It was a hell of a risk. There was a good chance that Parker would never look at Eliot the same way again, that he would be forced to keep his promise and walk away from this team forever. He hoped and prayed that he was right to have faith in her, that Parker was strong enough to handle all that he had said in the last hour.

“Um... Okay,” she said after a moment, looking around as if she had forgotten where she was or something.

Eliot felt sick. He wanted to wipe her tears away, to offer her his arms as comfort when she looked so upset, but he couldn’t. There was no way to know what Parker was thinking, there was rarely if ever a way to know that. If he tried to touch her now she might just lash out or even run from him. That would be a hell of a thing to have to explain to the others.

“You want me to go?” he asked then, neither of them sure if he meant to another part of the cave for now, or away forever.

“No,” she replied, presumably to both as she glanced over at him. “I... I’m sorry,” she said eventually.

“What do you have to be sorry for, sweetheart?” he smiled sadly. “I’m the one who wasn’t what you thought.”

He looked to the ground, wishing he hadn’t been so stupid. Everybody telling him that he and Parker belonged together, and Eliot had finally started listening, only to go and screw everything up. She had to hate him now, nothing else made sense. Eliot was stunned when he felt a hand at his cheek, making him turn and look. Parker met his eyes and gave a watery smile.

“No, you’re not,” she replied. “You’re so much stronger than I ever realised. You came back from the edge, turned your life around...” she shook her head. “I just, I went through so much, but you... you did too.”

Their situations were so different, but she knew that. Eliot didn’t think for a moment that she had made the mistake of thinking they had been through the same things. Her life had been pretty crappy before the team, her childhood in particular. In a lot of ways Eliot was to blame for his own downfall, whereas Parker had suffered at the hands of others - foster families, a broken system, even Archie. Still, they had both suffered, both gone through things nobody should have to endure, and come out the other side stronger and better people for it.

“Parker, you can’t just act like it’s okay that I...”

“Shh,” she put her finger on his lips as she made the sound. “I can act like it’s okay if it is okay,” she told him definitely.

Truth was if Eliot hadn’t already felt like he was going to join Parker in crying like a child, he sure did right about now. She was beautiful and wonderful. She wanted to be with him in spite of all he had told her, maybe even because he told her, it was hard to tell. There were no words left in him to explain, so he didn’t try, just leaned in close and kissed her lips.

“So, you and me,” she said when they parted, her hand running through his hair. “We’re going to be a you-and-me now?” she checked.

“If that’s what you want,” he smiled, pulling her closer. “You have no idea how amazing you are, do you?”

Parker giggled at that, finding the compliment strange maybe. She never did understand how wonderful or beautiful she was, unless they were talking about her thief skills. She knew how good she was with lock picks or wearing a harness, but her pure heart and understanding, they went unnoticed by their owner. Well, that wasn’t going to happen anymore. If Eliot had to tell her every single day how great she was to get Parker to understand it, so be it.

“I wish we’d have done this sooner,” she sighed. “I mean, me and Hardison... it wasn’t right. Me and you... it just works.”

“Seems to so far,” Eliot agreed. “But, you do know that we can’t just let this happen. I mean, we walk out there holding hands and all over each other, that ain’t gonna end well,” he told her with a shake of his head.

Parker understood. She didn’t like it but she knew he was right. They were still in the middle of the biggest con their team had faced. This latest attack was on them, their own family, Nate’s father. They had to deal with Latimer and Dubenich before they dealt with anything else.

“Okay,” she agreed with a single nod. “We wait until the job is done.”

They sealed their deal with a kiss, the last they would dare to share for now. They had to concentrate on getting this con completed, see justice done. It was what they did.

* * *

They had all cleared out of the cave after Latimer was gone. Quinn, Archie, and Chaos all said their goodbyes, and then they were back to the original five. Dubenich was still to be brought to justice and Nate was pretty specific about what that justice must be. He was armed with Jimmy’s gun when he went after Victor at Haverford, telling the team not to follow. There wasn’t a chance in hell they were ever going to let it be. Eliot and Sophie shared a desperate look, and the hitter felt Parker’s hand slip into his own. They had to help, there was no choice.

When everything came to a head, it was down to a stand-off. Nate versus Dubenich and Latimer by the dam’s edge. Not a member of the team was sure whether Nate had it in him to kill a man but every single one prayed he did not. They arrived outside just in time to see him make his final choice. The gun was laid down on the edge and Nate just strolled away, whilst the assholes who killed his father fell to their death. Eliot looked to Parker, saw her staring straight ahead. She never flinched in the face of death, not when the it was the bad guy getting what was coming to him. He might’ve been freaked out by the way she smiled, but when her hand covered his on the railing he understood. Job was done, all loose ends tied up. They made a deal about being together as of now. Of course, the smile slid from both their faces when Eliot looked up and saw Hardison staring at their joined hands.

“Hey, man...” said Eliot, but before he had a chance to explain, the hacker was striding away. “Hardison!”

Sophie barely noticed anything was amiss. Her eyes and Athenian both were focused entirely on Nate as she rushed to his side. This job was done, his revenge complete, and thankfully without any actual shooting or murder taking place. Dubenich and Latimer were gone for good and finally they could move forward.

Parker looked to Eliot, opening her mouth to speak but never getting the chance. His hand slipped from hers and the hitter rushed off after his friend. Parker gave chase, following Eliot, who followed Hardison down to the rocks beyond the dam. She caught up to the boys just as the hacker realised he really had nowhere to run to, and clearly wondering if he even wanted to go.

“I knew it, man!” he suddenly exploded, pointing an angry finger at Eliot. “I knew you were... the two of you, you were...”

“We weren’t!” Eliot instead loudly and firmly. “Hardison, when I told you that nothing happened with me and Parker, that was the truth. Okay, when I said it, it was true.”

“Was it? Huh? Seriously?” he checked, not looking entirely convinced.

“Yes!” said Parker, literally cutting in between them as she stepped forward and put herself in Hardison’s path to Eliot. “Hardison, I’m sorry for what happened with us, you know I am, but me and Eliot, we decided we wanted to be together yesterday,” she promised him. “I would never have cheated on you. I broke up with you because I didn’t ever want to be that person. I wanted to be a good girlfriend,” she explained, emotion making her voice crack as she told him the honest truth, just like always. “I tried, but... but you and me just... we...”

“We didn’t fit,” he said for her, only just loud enough to be heard over the rushing water beyond.

Eliot felt bad. He didn’t want to but he couldn’t help it. Standing here watching these two talk about their break up, he just felt like a third wheel, like he didn’t ought to be here. Unfortunately, this was just exactly where he had to be. Eliot had to face the fact that he’d moved in on his brother’s ex, even if he had never intended for it to happen, even if they had already broken up before anything occurred.

“Hardison,” he said stepping up next to Parker. “I’m sorry, man. Seriously, I never thought this would happen.”

“I did,” the hacker smiled sadly as he brought his eyes up to meet his fiend’s own. “Y’know, when we all first met, I was thinkin’ how amazing Parker was, and at the same time, always sure that you two was gonna be the two that...” he shook his head. “I thought it was my lucky day when I realised you weren’t interested, man. Maybe, just maybe, I was gonna get my shot, but... but I always knew if you changed your mind, if you come to realise just what a helluva woman our girl was, I was screwed.”

Parker bit her lip, feeling awful and wonderful all at the same time. Here were two men who loved her dearly, who she loved back in equal measure, just in very different ways. Hardison was hurting because of what she’d done, and that was terrible, but at the same time, he was being so kind about it. She almost felt she couldn’t deserve it.

“I didn’t realise Eliot meant so much to me until we were already dating,” she told Hardison, “and I hated knowing how much I had to hurt you. If you want me to leave now...”

“Leave?” the hacker echoed, looking at her with a frown. “What? The team? The country?”

“Either. Both?” Parker shrugged.

“Hey, if you go, I go with you,” Eliot said definitely, grabbing her hand in his and meeting her eyes with his intense gaze. “We come this far, babe, I’m not letting you walk out on me now.”

“You really shouldn’t,” agreed Hardison, however much it was hurting him.

A short distance away, Sophie and Nate broke their own intense moment of love and passion, to walk over and join the others. They were both pretty clear on what was happening by now. Eliot and Parker were closer, and Hardison was just now finding out about it. Where they went from here was anybody’s guess.

“So...” said the grifter, looking at each of the three younger members of the team. “What happens now?”

“I guess that all depends on Hardison,” said Parker shakily, absently leaning further into Eliot’s personal space - he didn’t mind at all.

“Hardison?” prompted Nate when no response came.

The fixture of their team, their lives together, it all rested on this moment. Hardison was more aware of that than perhaps anybody else actually. Over the last couple of weeks, he had gone through so many emotions, thought so much about how everybody moved forward from here. Now all eyes were on him to decide.

“Y’know, I driven myself crazy these past few days,” he admitted. “I was thinkin’ ‘bout me and Parker not workin’ out, and how her and Eliot seemed more suited from the start,” he said, rubbing at one eye. “I, er... I heard Archie talk to you, brah,” he said to Eliot. “I see the way you and Parker are together, and... and who am I to say you can’t make this woman as happy as she deserves to be, huh?”

Eliot smiled at that. Hardison was the smartest guy he ever met, he knew that already, but he was now proving he was the best guy he ever met too. He was putting what Parker wanted above his own needs, even though it had to be killing him not only to have lost the woman he loved, but to his best friend too.

“Okay,” said Nate looking between them. “That’s very decent and an admirable way of looking at things Hardison,” he said, slapping him on the shoulder. “But I guess, since one of us has to ask the tough questions here, what does that mean for all of us working together?” he checked.

“I don’t want to go,” said Parker quickly. “But if we have to...”

“You don’t have to,” Hardison assured her. “I mean, yeah, it’s gonna take a while for me to be okay with this. Actually, I’m not sure I’m ever gonna be a hundred percent okay with it, but I can deal,” he considered. “Maybe if we all take a little break here, then yeah, put the gang back together in a little while. Get back to doin’ what we do,”

Sophie smiled at his grown up attitude. It was true enough that Hardison could be like an overgrown child at times, and to be fair he wasn’t the only one amongst them. Right now, she was very proud of him for being so adult and accepting, even when it had to hurt. He was acting for the greater good, for the team, for the people that they helped when no-one else could. That was very special.

“I think a break is a very good idea,” said Nate, putting his arm right around Sophie’s shoulders and drawing her in closer.

“Me too,” Parker nodded, sharing a smile with Eliot.

“So, we okay, man?” the hitter himself asked, holding a hand out to Hardison.

He was expecting a simple hand-shake and that was what the hacker considered too. In the end, he just couldn’t do it.

“We will be,” he nodded, finding a lop-sided smile as he initiated the usual high five / fist bump combo that made everybody grin.

Hardison turned and walked away then. Sophie nudged Nate and encouraged him to go with her. That just left Eliot and Parker alone, both letting out a sigh of relief in the same moment. This had gone so much better than they thought.

“So, where will we go?” she asked, reaching her arms up around his neck and his hands went to her waist and held her close.

“Where’d you wanna go, sweetheart?” he asked, taking a moment to push loose strands of hair back off her face.

“Pretty much anywhere with you,” she shrugged easily. “So long as there are buildings I can I jump off too, otherwise I get bored.”

Eliot laughed at her sudden addition to what had been a perfectly sweet comment on its own. He never did know what was coming next with this woman, and that was just the way he liked it. That was his Parker, and he wouldn’t change her for the world, and the way he kissed her proved it, just in case she didn’t know.

THE END


End file.
